Don Giovanni

The Salzburg Festival is gaining a reputation for controversial productions of Mozart's operas, and Sven-Eric Bechtolf's 2014 staging of the composer's masterpiece about a doomed lothario is no exception. Bechtolf sets the piece in what appears to be a 1920s hotel, with stairways descending to a stage that is variously presented as either the lobby or the bar and dining room. The Don (Ildebrando D'Arcangelo), dressed in tuxedo and snakeskin overcoat and accompanied by his bemused valet, Leporello (Luca Pisaroni), seduces guest Donna Anna (Lenneke Ruiten), although she's betrothed to wimpy Don Ottavio (Andrew Staples). When her father (Tomasz Konieczny) tries to intervene, Don Giovanni kills him. Giovanni also tries to have his way with hotel maid Zerlina (Valentina Nafornita), newly married to bartender Masetto (Alessio Arduini), while trying to fend off angry Donna Elvira (Anett Fritsch), whom he'd earlier seduced and abandoned. In the end the Don is confronted by Anna's dead father and dragged off to hell, but in this staging he returns, presumably as a ghost, during the final sextet to ogle the women and chase a maiden off the stage. The vocalism is mostly good, but while the Vienna Philharmonic plays well, conductor Christoph Eschenbach chooses tempos that are often quite sluggish and romantic in style. Presented in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, and PCM stereo on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1 and PCM stereo on Blu-ray, extras include a behind-the-scenes documentary shot backstage. With so many superior versions available, this one is optional. (F. Swietek)