I don't know about the modern pieces that are being included in Salzburg,
but here is a paraphrase of a description 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 'have an air of the dolce vita' about them - the reviewer
   seems to have found them rather alluring - they can only signify an
   attempt to go down in style.

   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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