Don Giovanni

We went to the first opera of the season Sunday afternoon on a sweltering October day.  No coats, no sweaters, people in short sleeves. Really! When has it ever been 70 degrees here in late October? The gardeners will tell you something strange is going on with the weather. Everything is green and growing like spring. Maybe we'll skip winter all together? (ha ha)

Anyway, we had a nice time and it was fun meeting up with our friend Candi for dinner afterwards. Mozart's Don Giovanni is a big favorite and on the list of the 10 most performed operas in the world.  The story is based on the legends of the fictional Spanish libertine and seducer Don Juan.

Don Giovanni is sometimes called a comic opera, but I find that disconcerting. (John says lighten up.) It can be hard to see an opera through 18th century eyes. If Don Giovanni was a movie, I guess it would be classified a black comedy. That's a fine line-- some black comedies "work" and some fall flat, being neither funny or tragic.  Don Giovanni definitely "works."

There is awful stuff like murder, rape and eternal damnation, combined with masked balls, hidden identities, funny fights and romantic betrayals. Anyway, Mozart himself referred to his work as opera buffa, which is "opera of a light or amusing nature." Being Seattle, this production was heavy on the slapstick and the audience found most of it hilarious.

Well, it sure beat sitting around the house all afternoon, brooding over the Seahawk's second painful loss in as many weeks.