Opera Orlando modernizes ‘Don Giovanni’
Nobleman transformed into a sexual predator
In 230 years Don Juan has gone from humorous lothario to predatory creep.
Actually, Don Juan — as portrayed in Mozart’s 1787 Italian opera “Don Giovanni” — hasn’t changed. But society has and that presented a challenge to Opera Orlando, which wanted to keep Mozart’s beautiful music alive without offending a modern audience’s sensibilities.
“I had concerns about the way the piece treats women, and the fact much of it is supposed to be comedy,” said the opera’s director, Robert Neu. “It’s like ‘boys will be boys’ — but I didn’t find it amusing.”
Society’s evolving values can be a challenge whenever an arts group presents certain centuries-old works, such as “Don Giovanni,” the story of a young, arrogant and sexually aggressive nobleman who harasses and abuses those around him,
especially women.
But Opera Orlando has taken a radical step to update one of the most performed operas in the world, playing this weekend at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando. For the last production of its first full season, the troupe chose a ripped-from-the-headlines approach: It will transform Giovanni into an arrogant “big man on campus” who goes too far with the female students who catch his eye — before receiving his comeuppance.
If you think of Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer who served three months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman at a 2015 fraternity party, that’s OK with the “Giovanni” creative team.
“All the stuff in the media about white male privilege started to resonate strongly,” said Neu, artistic director of Skylark Opera Theatre in St. Paul, Minn. “Giovanni is such an example of white male privilege being abused.”
Turning the nobleman into a modern-day student is a bit of a risk, said Opera Orlando executive director Gabriel Preisser, who will perform the title role. “But I thought it was worth taking. It remains to be seen if anyone is offended.”
Through the years, the show has proven tricky for other opera companies.
When San Francisco Opera presented “Don Giovanni” in 2000, Liane Curtis wrote a column for SFGate.com, a website affiliated with the San Francisco Chronicle, that bluntly stated: “Let’s call a rapist a rapist.”
A 2010 English National Opera production drew scorn from critics for sensationalizing scenes of rape. Said John Berry, the London troupe’s artistic director at the time: “The piece rarely receives unanimous applause, as the narrative is about power and sex set against a sublime 18th-century score, and therefore audiences through the ages have struggled to come to terms with it, especially in modern interpretations.”
There’s also a fear of alienating audiences by tinkering with old favorites.
“There are people who don’t want to see classical arts performed that way,” said Jim Helsinger, who as artistic director of Orlando Shakespeare Theater frequently sets centuries-old plays in modern times.
His theater’s creative team always considers how contemporary theatergoers will react to the social mores of William Shakespeare’s time, two centuries before Mozart.
“We absolutely think about that,” said Helsinger, who in 2013 staged “The Taming of the Shrew,” a play seen by some as misogynistic. The Shakes worked to make the 16th-century comedy “palatable to a modern audience,” Helsinger said, by portraying the would-be lovers as misfits, setting the show in the roughand-tumble Wild West and showing the leading man behaving affectionately toward his love interest.
For “Giovanni,” the opera has taken steps to ensure the audience is prepared for its sold-out update. A marketing campaign alerted subscribers to the modern take. Counselors will be available before and after performances in case patrons are distressed by the thought of sexual abuse.
At a recent public forum leading up to “Giovanni,” national health educator Cathy Robinson Pickett spoke about changing attitudes toward sexual assault.
“The political climate inside a country helps determine what’s acceptable,” Pickett said at the Opera Orlando event. “And that pendulum swings. Look at our country and the change in what’s considered ‘just guy talk’ to what’s appalling.”
The edgier approach fits with Opera Orlando’s goals, Preisser said.
“Part of our mission is how can we make opera relevant, how can we create theater that makes people think,” he said.
And such risks can pay off: “Arts groups that push their own boundaries and push the boundaries of their art form tend to contribute more and thrive,” Helsinger said.
The audience can also benefit.
“This kind of opera will open things up for people who maybe didn’t realize they had closed down,” Pickett said. “When you see things you can’t deny, it opens emotions — and then it’s not a museum piece anymore.”
Ultimately, arts leaders agreed, it serves the highest purpose of art — reflecting our humanity for better or worse.
“We’d like to think we’ve evolved, but we still face the issues they did back then — abuse of power, sexual abuse,” Preisser said.
That alone makes it worth it to keep presenting contentious works, they said.
“Should we produce those things? Sure. Should we remember how many years have passed? Definitely,” Helsinger said. “What makes it great art is that it survived its time period and now can be interpreted by people of another era.”