Don Giovanni

A fascinating film that seems to be operating on several levels at once. It was hard for me sometimes to just listen to it as an opera, because I felt that there were so many messages being imparted through the sets, landscape and especially the extras who continually move about the scene as the main characters sing and act their stories. Others have observed that the common people are present everywhere, and yet just ignored by Don Giovanni; he even conducts his attempted seduction of Zerlina with half a village standing on the steps and watching. As an aristocrat, he doesn't even acknowledge the existence of these underlings, and can do what he wants without worrying about their opinion or their interference. Nor is this just the behavior of a bad man; Don Ottavio is much the same during one of his arias (I think it is 'Il mio tesoro') when he is walking about declaiming as peasants dot the lawn, taking their afternoon siesta. Perhaps the point is not so much to accuse anyone of being deliberately cruel, as to underline how absolutely divided the aristocracy is from the common people. Not only do the aristocrats ignore the commoners, the commoners seem to be pretty oblivious to the aristocrats, too. No matter what Don Giovanni gets up to, the work of the peasants just goes on - he may wander down to the kitchen once in a while to give a little speech and pinch a serving wench, but it makes very little difference to anyone if he's present or not. The whole of this society seems as artificial and fragile as Don Giovanni's lace sleeves; this is a world that is almost at the limit of its ability to hold together under the weight of its contradictions.

Ruggero Raimondi is a terrific Don Giovanni - handsome, graceful and charming, but with a hardness in the line of his mouth and his eyes that creates a very disturbing feeling of danger. Zerlina, though attracted, seems to sense that there is something wrong about him, though she isn't quite sure where to attribute the feeling of fear he inspires in her. Teresa Berganza was my favorite of the 3 main ladies; Edda Moser seemed very grim after her opening scene, and Kiri Te Kanawa reminded me irresistibly of Madeleine Kahn in "Young Frankenstein", especially with that tall silver-powdered hairdo. The silent servant played by Eric Adjani was another one of the puzzles that I felt this movie kept posing me. He seems to be a younger version of Don Giovanni, and one who is present almost as Don Giovanni's spirit, when the actual man is not there. During moments of crisis, he almost always watches Don Giovanni, not the action that is taking place outside him, and only Don Giovanni seems to really look at him. In the finale, he is almost like Banquo's ghost, sitting in Don Giovanni's chair until the master confronts him, and when the Commendatore's statue appears, Don Giovanni almost seems to bid him goodbye as he passes. I think the servant is Don Giovanni's conscience, the age when Don Giovanni, as a young man, cast him off and turned to evil. Now he follows him like a ghost of himself, observing but unable to influence.

I'm not usually a fan of cinematic adaptations of opera. They often resort to the lazy convenience of the photography and forget to include the heart and soul of the subject. Those elements are especially important with this dark and self-destructive tale of the womanising "Giovanni" (Ruggero Raimondi). Right from the start when he kills the father (John Macurdy) of one of his many lovers, though, Joseph Losey manages to interweave the sumptuous details of Venetian settings with intricate costumes and he manages to successfully ensure that the libretto is clearly and energetically heard as this ghostly tale of human frailty unfolds. To be honest, when you have Mozart at his most creative played out in the hands of Raimondi; Edda Moser as the daughter of the murdered man; Macurdy and the powerful soprano of Kiri Te Kanawa then it's hard to imagine how he could have gone wrong - and he doesn't. It's a lavish enterprise. You don't really need to know the story beforehand (though it does help) as I find it one of the more straightforward plots to follow. That said, it isn't a simple story and the characters offer plenty for us to get our teeth into and to wrap our ears around as we watch a real drama emerge from the torch-lit granite and marble, with powerful arias and duets delivered with emotion and oomph. If you can see it in one go on a big screen, then that does most justice to this stylishly crafted and orchestrated interpretation of a man's flirtation with love, lust and the fires of hell. Rousing stuff well worth your time, even if you're not an opera buff.

Sublime music and the filming on location in Vicenza -- Very well made adaptation of Mozart's masterwork. The settings create a visual feast to rival any operatic stage set. Although I did find Leporello a little dissapointing with its full comic potential not realised.

I don't think I can add to what has been said(and so well) already but I will try my best. This is my favourite version of Don Giovanni, both sumptuous and dramatic and does justice to a wonderful, complex opera that is quite possibly Mozart's most complex and dramatic.

The music is just wonderful. From the dark and dramatic overture, to the champagne aria to the duet between Giovanni and Donna Elvira and of course the final scene with the Commendatore which here was superbly done, it is a choc-a-block of some of the finest music in opera history.

Joseph Losey's direction is well handled and secure and isn't overwhelmed by the complexity of the story. And of course this version is sumptuously filmed, with exquisite costumes, settings and scenery, undoubtedly one of the most gorgeously filmed film operas to be put on film.

And the performances are excellent, with a superb Ruggero Raimondi, making Giovanni handsome, graceful and charming, yet sinister, devilish and seductive, and a genuinely imposing John Macurdy as the Commendatore. Jose Van Dam stays true to Mozart's concept of Leporello, Edda Mosser is a lovely Donna Anna, Kiri TeKanawa is a fiery Donna Elvira and Teresa Berganza is an adorable Zerlina.

Overall, wonderful, sumptuous, complex and dramatic. 10/10 Bethany Cox

To make a movie based on an opera is a different thing from filming an opera on stage. Cinema and opera are 2 different forms of art each one with its specific techniques. Nevertheless one can be at the other's service and if the match is excellent the merits of them both will be enhanced. That's what happens with this excellent movie where we can enjoy Mozart's music and the singing talents of such extraordinary artists like Kiri Te Kanawa and others besides a lot of gorgeous and dynamic movie images, sceneries, shots and superb cut and editing. The plot everyone knows: the adventures and misadventures of D. Giovanni the king of philanderers of all times and a more or less disguised attack on aristocracy and its immoral behaviour. We are on the eve of the French Revolution and as everybody also knows Mozart was a freemason and a democrat.