In Act I, the opera’s focus is on a man called Don Giovanni who travels the world alongside his servant named Leporello. Don Giovanni loves to conquest women of all ages around the world, his servant Leporello is usually there by his side to assist on the conquest or fix his issues. In this story we come across Don Giovanni disguised trying to force Donna Anna but gets stopped by her father, the Commendatore, who gets killed by Don Giovanni. Donna Anna and her husband Don Ottavio devastated by the outcome decided to vengeance the death of the Commendatore. Donna Elvira is one of the women in which Don Giovanni had conquest and left abandoned. In search of Don Giovanni, she finds out the truth and decides to come between him and future women. In Act II she catches him trying to conquest Zerlina, who is betrothed to Masetto, and comes between them, informing Zerlina of the person he truly is. Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Donna Elvira, Zerlina and Masetto decide to come together and kill Don Giovanni, but come to find out that they almost killed Leporello the servant due to him disguising himself as Don Giovanni. Leporello and Don Giovanni decide to hide in a cemetery and hear the statue on the Commendatore’s monument warn Don Giovanni that his end is near. Don Giovanni invites the statue to dinner. The statue shows up and ask Don Giovanni to eat with him, to which he agrees and takes the statues hand. The statue seizes him and ask him to repent, Don Giovanni says no, and ends up dragged into hell.
The opera ‘Don Giovanni’ was an amazing experience, it had been the first time attending such event. I decided to go with a friend which advised me of the wardrobe in which most people wear in an opera and expressed how much fun we would both have in the event. When I got to the venue there were people from many different ethnicities walking around the lobby. Most of them were in suits or in ball gowns which took me back a bit and the rest dressed fancy in their own way. The main lobby was open concept, the walls were all glass and had high ceilings. While we were waiting for the opera to start one of the performers decided to sign for us the audience in the main lobby. I really appreciated such gesture from the performer and made me even more excited for the play to start.
The inside of the opera was grand with four different tiers with side cubicles, which were personal rooms. The first tier was on the first floor which had a straight close view of the stage, the second tier was behind the first tier just a level above, the third tier was one floor above which allowed a better view of the whole stage, but not so detailed for the performers, and finally the tier in which I was in which was the fourth tier had a very wide viewing of the stage but it was really hard to catch the details compared to the other tiers. The colors inside the venue were orange and dark brown. These tones of colors were calming and inviting to the person and the curtain of the stage was like a painting full of different colored flowers. The play started right on time, once the curtains open all you could see was a dark blue background with different rock landscape. In the middle of this scene, you see Don Giovanni’s servant Leporello sitting down.
The performers that captured my attention during the play were Don Giovanni, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira. Don Giovanni had such a strong presence as a villain, but also as a charmer in the play, also his voice was very manly and powerful. Donna Anna had such a strong women power and demand. Her voice was the main attraction the whole time and could hit any note possible to human. Donna Elvira had a sweet tone to her yet obsessed with love which many people in the play could relate and felt sorry for.
In these acts the lighting, music, and sound effects were everything. The lighting would mainly focus on our main characters and would incorporate to the intensity of the situation. The music and sound effects would improve the meaning behind every word and scene. It allowed us to acknowledge when a scene was calming and when a scene was becoming serious. These effects also allowed the audience to figure out when they could clap their hands and cheer for the performers.