The Bucharest Opera House
I booked my ticket for the show on Saturday March 14 of 2015 online. It took me a little bit to get the website translated and to find the calendar but I think I was just a bit too clumsy because actually it is easy and with some Latin in school you can even handle the Romanian version. I mention this because usually I would reserve a ticket online (if possible) and try to get another student discount at the actual ticket office. If you are coming from a Western European country and you can afford to travel every now and then you will be astonished about the cheap prices of the tickets even for the best categories. In the end I spent about 10 Euro (45 RON) for my ticket and I know I could stand for less money in the Wiener Staatsoper but I decided to choose a seat in the right front section of the parquet. And I would have even paid more for a better place (I think 70 RON would have been the price of the best seat for this show) but it was already sold out.
What I really liked about the house itself was that they have a cafe inside that offers free wifi and I think some of the best offer of drinks and refreshments I have ever seen in an opera house. The staff of the cafe was very nice and helpful and served me the drink despite of their self-service policy. This is probably nothing too extraordinary but I really liked that I was drinking a cocktail for 20 RON (a bit less than half the price of the ticket) which was named "Le nozze di Figaro" and which was a good substitution for the non-existing introduction to the other Da Ponte opera "Don Giovanni". I really want to emphasize that I don't really care that I couldn't find anybody giving an introduction to this opera at the opera house since I have heard and studied it before very often. The staging was also clear enough to get the plot without even speaking Romanian or Italian. I wasn't really pleased by the restrooms because at first not all of the soap dispensers were working and when I went there during the intermission they ran out of the paper towels. Besides the entrance staff which was the very contrary of the employees of the bar could have impressed me more by being a bit friendlier and by selling programs that cost less than the other half of the ticket I didn't spend for the second cocktail. Though, a nice feature is that they give away a free playbill leaflet with a cast list and the information about upcoming performances, very handy and compact. Interestingly, they didn't really have any other printed material but the playbill within the building, at least I couldn't see any of them inside. Having said that, they won't bother you with information about the house its ensemble or the current season and you will have to go to their website to get this information. On the other hand I didn't really miss this and again it was an interesting experience to go to the opera without being distracted by often too disappointing marketing materials.
Some words about the audience: As you would expect it from a show on a Saturday evening the house was sold out and I didn't notice anybody who had left the show after the intermission. Besides I really liked that the audience seemed to be very young. I'm not good at estimating numbers but I guess that at least 80 percent were younger than 50. In my country this would be very unusual and I could also observe that a lot of elderly people came together with their family including their grandchildren. At first I didn't really like the fact that a lot of people were talking during the show and using their smartphones but in the end this created a very casual atmosphere. You could see both people dressed up in suits and robes but also those (like me) wearing a hoody and bluejeans. It seemed that all types of viewers were welcome here. The only thing that I found a bit strange was that people left their seats and even came back afterwards. It would have been okay if the light outside would have been darkened during the performance or curtains at the doors would have been installed. Nevertheless I really enjoyed being part of this audience and it also helped me to enjoy the show with easy manners. Before finally talking about the performance itself I want to mention the fact that they have a little box with the inscription "Sugestii" which you will notice for sure when leaving the venue.
The show itself
Don Giovanni in undeniably part of the repertory not even in Romania but for sure in any other country that has opera presentations on its agenda. It seems an easy piece of music, at least this is what it sounds like or what it should sound like if you can call it a successful interpretation. But it is a common mistake to assume that it is also easy to perform just because easiness is the main aim of the interpretation result. This is probably one of the rather frequent mistakes you can actually make when daring to play Mozart. In Bucharest I was positively surprised that the majority of the singers on stage including the chorus have probably heard about this before and know how to deal with it. Only talking about the musical performance I have to admit that I've seen worse Don Giovannis before. Nonetheless I have never heard such a unique interpretation of Leporello, the master's servant. Catalin Toropoc sung the role rather in the manner of his master's voice and he even made me believe his complexity which is often a difficult task if not being the title role nor the soprano with the high tones in a piece. The direction also focused on the character which was easy to understand after the disappearance of Don Giovanni in the Second Act and with such a talented voice it is just fair to call him the man of the night even if his teammates mostly raised the bar as well both from a scenic and musical point of view.
When being in a capital and assuming that the capital of Romania has probably one of the best ensembles of the country I'd been very disappointed if I had to lower my sights concerning the title role "Don Giovanni". You could say that Inut Pascu is what a stereotypical Giovanni should look, behave, sing and sound like and I'm not saying that because of that boredom is guaranteed when going to see him in this performance. Nevertheless, I was very excited when I heard his "Fin ch'han dal vino" with such a precision and clarity that I changed my opinion to an even more positive direction. I happen to write down a little "+" next to a performer after the intermission as a ritual that helps me to remember if I want to go to see a performance in the future with a specific cast. In this case I limited myself to three singers from whom I already mentioned two, the third one that surprised me positively in the first act was Andrei Lazar who gave his voice to the role of Don Ottavio the husband of Donna Anna. I was really impressed by his scenic interpretation of this role since it is at least nowadays probably one of the rather thankless tasks to fulfill. The tenor part in this opera happens to be difficult to understand or to identify with and you have to be a bloody good tenor to convince the audience of your skill. Though you will still perish next to two not even world class sopranos (one would be unfair enough...) and to the other protagonists of the evening during the applause.
This Don Ottavio was different. Again, the direction of the singer successfully refused creating a very passive and only reflecting character. Instead I could see a man that showed his weaknesses and his inability to deal with his wife's emotional outbreaks. Usually, I am already glad when I see a Don Ottavio that is sensitive and maybe a bit of a softy, in general you are very lucky if a singer is able to communicate you this attitude instead of just standing in front of the stage and looking to the conductor as his only emotional expression. I shouldn't mention that I really disliked his peak tone in his second aria "Il mio tesoro" in the second act which is probably one of the last impressions one will get from this role in the process of the piece. I know that this is probably the litmus test when proving that you are able to sing this role. In the end I still liked this overall performance but I gave my plus away to another singer.
Oana Andra who according to the cast list seemed to be debuting as Donna Elvira at first didn't spark my interest. Maybe this was because of her visible nervousness in the first act which didn't really affect my first impression of her which was still very positive but not too outstanding that she would deserve my "+". I have to tell you though that this was a snap judgement and I'm pretty sure that these nervousness issues were partly caused by other forces I would like to talk about a bit later. Mrs Andra - and I repeat that she was performing this role for the first time in front of a bigger audience this night - sang a Donna Elvira that was at least as convincing as the performance of Leporello. The "Mi tradi quell' alma ingrata" in the second act was definitely the highlight of the second act concerning the soloistic performances. You cannot praise her musical abilities enough since I am sure that she was very helpless concerning the scenic elements of the night. This is not to blame on her but on the director or the stage manager working on this role together with her. It was a typical "Close your eyes and enjoy" situation and I am sure that she already has potential enough to convince both from a musical and a scenic perspective at a time. I would really wish her that she might meet the right director and the right cast in time because from her performance you can tell that her voice and her character is already mature enough to make other people at least as happy as Leporello's made me this night.
Masetto and Zerlina sung by Justinian Zetea and Maria Jinga both fitted very well into the again very stereotypical view of the director Andra Tabacaru-Hogea of their character. To my mind Zerlina could beat her husband both scenically and musically which is just okay if you agree that this is just what the disposition of their roles demands. The same goes for the Commendatore who sang from different corners on stage in the audience and from one of the balconies of the Bucharest opera house. The acoustic effect was nice even though I didn't get the director's point. Despite of my lack of understanding his voice sounded very confident from all corners in the theatre he was meant to sing from.
No, I haven't forgot Donna Anna. Sung by Simona Neagu, it is very difficult to make a fair judgement about her performance. It is to her credit that she has a beautiful voice which left regarding intonation and interpretation a very positive first impression on me. Nevertheless, she seemed to have a blackout that was partly caused by the conductor (it already happened to Donna Elvira and her gaze to the conductor told me that he was at least partly responsible for not having giving the cue...) but in the great aria "Non mi dir" you should definitely not depend on the conductor too much and you should be able to memorize it well especially because another singer trap of Mozart music is that as a performer you seem to know what is coming in the score but when recalling it in your memory you suddenly experience that you don't and you really have to repeat and work hard to have the right notes when you actually need them. She repeatedly hadn't the right notes and just stopped singing. I don't know if that's unprofessional, in some countries concerning the musician's fee it definitely would be. On the other hand her downward scales at times revealed that this is probably not her favorite singing part in the repertory. Scenically she here and there to me seemed way too private and uninvolved. Nonetheless, this was still very different in the first act and I think she just gave up after her blackouts which would not have been necessary because as I already mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph her voice sounded really beautifully and musically and I am sure that after two or three musical rehearsals more before the show she could have convinced my expectations as well as the others singers mostly did, not to mention that she didn't debut on that night and she seems to be part of the ensemble of the opera.
Some words about the conductor: I blame a lot of false cues and tempi of that night on him. Even if from a scenic point of view I can understand that a Donna Elvira has to be nervous it should only be her and not the person who sings the role since she already has to concentrate hard enough in order to give a convincing performance. The conductor's task is to give the singer this freedom and security to decide about the final interpretation of the role. In this case unfortunately it often didn't happen.
I don't want to waste too much time on talking about the staging of the piece. It didn't convince me and I really disliked the very uninspired stage set that could only double the plot's actions and refused any deeper look at the piece. Nevertheless the scenic performance of the singers, how they understood their roles and how they finally translated it into their personal interpretation was very inspiring. I would have appreciated it though if I had seen a bit more conceptual input and a very different stage set from the one I saw, maybe because it reminded me too much of a conservatory's performance of this piece (another example of an exorbitant overestimation of an institution's capabilities). At least it didn't prevent the singers of the evening (at least those who were capable of doing so) from being brilliant at what they're supposed to do onstage: singing.
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