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18th century operatic repertoire as a whole presents certain challenges in a concert format, due to its inherent musical and dramatic structure. The musical numbers rarely drive the drama, but rather tend to be musical “reflections” on what just took place. The compositional style known as secco (dry) recitative allows the singer, with simple accompaniment, to literally recite the text. Occasionally, there are recitative sections that are accompanied by the orchestra, these are known as recitative accompagnato, these generally lead into an aria or ensemble. For this performance, we will replace the secco recitative sections with a narration, in order to keep the drama moving forward. Without the benefit of staging, the “dry” sections could turn out to be just that, so we’ve opted to make some cuts to make this fit into our format a little more neatly. The accompanied sections will remain in tact, as will most of the arias and ensembles. Mozart’s ensemble writing is at its best in Don Giovanni, and we have quite an ensemble of our own to bring it to life. Our approach of bringing you operatic performances without orchestra, sets and staging is meant to help refocus the light onto the one element which makes opera, well…opera, the human voice. If you are unfamiliar with Don Giovanni,hopefully experiencing our concert opera production will encourage you to get out and see a fully staged production with orchestra and sets.. For those who are familiar with this masterpiece, this is your chance to explore this master work from a new perspective. Although some of Mozart and much of DaPonte have ended up on our cutting room floor, we feel confident that you’ll get a good sense of the piece and that our Don Giovanni will have you humming tunes on your way out the door! |
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