I don't know about the modern pieces that are being included in Salzburg,
but here is a free translation of a review of the new Salzburg 'Don Juan'
from the 'Neue Zuercher Zeitung' (7. 8. 99):

Designer Luca Ronconi, Conductor Lorin Maazel:

The stage consisted of grey walls and towers with various openings, giving
no specific geographic or historic point of reference.  Don Juan as a
universal figure.  Visual focus is a huge sphere representing heaven and
hell.  At the end of the opera, the Komtur steps out of the sphere and
pulls Don J.  into it, and Don J's motto appears written on it: Viva la
Liberta.

The dimension of time is represented by a number of different clockfaces
showing different times of the day.  The basic setting turns out to be
the 1st half of the century: Donna Elvira enters by getting out of an
old railway carriage, Don Juan enters in an old-fashioned white cabriolet.
Leporello is his chauffeur and Masetto his garage-boy.  Zerlina enters on
a bicycle.

All this is meant to show the passage of time, as is the fact that the
characters age in the course of the production: Zerlina gradually becomes
pregnant and at the end appears with a great many children; Don Ottavio's
hair becomes grey; Donna Anna walks with a stick; Don Juan sits in a
wheelchair, even though he turns out not to be crippled.

The point of all this is clearly to show the hero Don J in his decline and
failure.

The actors are isolated by spotlight in a general gloom (although there
is pastel backlighting) and seem to act more or less in isolation from
each other, with sometimes almost embarrassingly introvert gestures.  No
dramatic flow, no development of the action.  Merely a few 'surprises'
such as when Elvira's railway car is suddenly filled with all the women of
Leporello's little list of his master's mistresses.  Also a lot of skulls
in the graveyard scene.  All characters seem tired - the country folk don't
dance, but are 'dozing' in pairs.  The costumes, with their air of the
dolce vita, also add to this atmosphere of stylish decay.

Now to the music: the voices are beautiful and generally characterless,
although the women are more potently expressive than the men.  Lorin
Maazel tries to squeeze the last ounce of tonal beauty, ample melody
and instrumental subtlety out of the score, always controlled, always
transparent, never loud or strident.

In summary, no sign whatsoever that Don J., with its conflict between
vitality and mortality, is one of the most tension-filled, profound and
disturbing works in all Opera.

----

For all those list members in America and Europe who are inundated with
opera productions: are there any exceptions any more to this mindless
dramatic deconstructivism, often coupled with equally mindless musical
conservatism? Even in li'l old New Zealand it is becoming difficult to
see a 'straight' performance of a theatrical work.

Whither Salzburg, whither Beyreuth, whither Opera?

Felix Delbruck
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