Something which has surely been said before but not in my circle of dashboard posts:
I donāt think Freyja is a failgirl lesbian nor do I think she was truly shooting her shot with Olethra there. I think she is certainly a lesbian and certainly would try under other circumstances, but in that particular instance I had a very different reading of the interaction.
The precise wording escapes me but to the best of my knowledge it went like:
Olethra: Iāve found this toad, can we keep him?
Freyja: do you want to be my girlfriend?
Olethra: no I see us as platonicā¦
Freyja: then I donāt care.
Which to me has much more of a reading of āwhy are you asking my permission to have a pet when weāre not in each otherās lives like that?ā Which is still objectively hilarious of Freyja jumping to āis the sharing of guardianship for this toad a proposal of interest?ā but is not necessarily Freyja shooting her shot unprompted and missing by a mile.
I still love Freyja fifth-wheeling for the new Zephyr crew tho. My favourite bloodthirsty banker.
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One thing I find super interesting about Tagliaviniās portrayal of Escamillo in Bieitoās Carmen is just how much it feels like heās prostituting himself to the soldiers as much as the women are.
Itās far subtler that the overt everything else thatās going on, but thereās something in the hard-drinking, wild-eyed bravado and the way that the invading soldiers cheer him and egg him on and paw at him like a circus animal.
It gives a little more depth to the attraction between him and Carmen, two people clinging on to their culture and art even as itās commodified and sold to the highest bidder, a little reflection of skill and bravery and the cunning it takes to survive in the world.
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I'm interested about your opinion on Leporello (after scrolling through your posts on him hehe):
Favorite Leporello (production/actor)
Is he a pathetic little wet cat
Does he deserve a hug
Any other stuff that you may want to yap about
...yup, that's apparently my ask. Have a great day/afternoon/evening/night!
Iām glad youāre enjoying the Leporello-blogging, I should do more of it, and I sincerely apologise for the beast you have unleashed
Favourite production is without a doubt the 2017 Aix-en-Provence performance. Nahuel di Pierro is the most fantastic Leporello and every character choice is played so well, and for a minimalist production it packs so much humour into lighting and musical cues.
This production is top tier for having fully realised female characters with their own agency and arcs, and having the Don be an absolute powerhouse of charm and pity and slime. When heās having fun you want to have fun with him, when heās acting up heās a manic monster that even Leporello struggles to contain. And I think the delight of this Leporello is that he does try to contain the Don for the most part - he is jokingly charming with Elviraās maid, tries to protect her and Elvira in the finale from the Don, and looks genuinely crushed to lose the Don after hanging on for all heās worth.
Itās a very sensitive portrayal, while not downplaying that Leporello does benefit from the parties and the carousing and the Donās favour, and that his protection of the Don leads to further misery for Donna Anna and the other women even if he himself is kinder than that.
As even the most cursory glance through my blog will have revealed: I have a favourite singer. Roberto Tagliavini in the 2019 Royal Ballet and Opera production was a Leporello I spent a long time tracking down and it was utterly worth it, even if the production itself makes some decisions I donāt agree with. Iām going to see him reprise the role in a couple of months and am unbelievably hyped.
He has a pleasing amount of snark to him, always pulling faces or dragging his feet when heās asked to do something, or ineffectually trying to chase the girls, balanced with a genuine fright of Don Giovanni that I think plays very well. Most criticisms that he gives are instantly softened with ingratiating laughter and heās very quick to flinch even when the Don is on the other side of the stage. Also I am endlessly pleased by watching a very tall man get flung around the stage like a ragdoll and spend the entire time nursing a headache.
On the other hand, he does seem genuinely concerned for Don Giovanniās welfare, sometimes played for laughs when he has to check if heās killed the Don by suggesting he give up women, but also rushing to support him when the Commendatore appears with all the symptoms of a heart attack.
The difference between this and other productions, and a spoiler if youāre inclined to watch it, is that when Leporello fails to dissuade the Don from accepting the Commendatoreās invitation he quits, unable to justify sticking with him. He later appears as a guilty, ghostly hallucination, still trying to help his master but ultimately leaving him alone in the final confrontation. I do enjoy the aesthetic of it very much, Elvira occupies a similar role and it highlights the similarities between the two, but part of me wants it to be taken a little further. One of the reasons Leporello abandons the Don is because the Don has a knife in hand the entire time and is not afraid to threaten with it, and I believe an unthinking stab might be the cherry on top of the cake to highlight just how unstable the Don has become. Also because I love covering my favourite characters in blood.
There are plenty of productions Iāve skimmed through; it was the very first opera I fell in love with and there are several I want to revisit now I know the libretto well enough to survive without subtitles. Some shoutouts to the 2001 Zurich production with LĆ”szlĆ³ PolgĆ”r playing an older, much more downtrodden Leporello who is much more sympathetic with Elvira, and the 1991 Opera Australia production with Stephen Bennet who initially has the bearing of a mildly-malevolent beanstalk but over the course of the opera is reduced to a trembling wreck (and also has the most statuesque Commendatore Iāve ever seen).
To wrap up a very long post, Iām pretty fascinated by most interpretations of the character as long as they donāt go for the ādirectly subordinate villainā approach. I think thatās boring and does a disservice to a far more complex character who is chock full of class dynamics and unfulfilled wishes. I love productions that make the relationship between Leporello and the Don more explicitly homoerotic and abusive - especially as it draws parallels with the female characters - and dislike ones that have him as a pure striver who would do exactly the same as the Don if given enough power. Robert Gleadow does a fantastic, wild-eyed Leporello but unfortunately both the productions Iāve seen him in feature him actually sleeping with Elvira during the deception, which is probably one of my hard nos for character sympathy, even if one of those prods has a āthe Don was dead to begin withā vibe and the other has Elvira not really minding. I need to revisit Furlanetto and Terfel and Regazzo but they all had some great stuff going for them.
And to wrap up the wrap-up. Yes he is a pathetic little wet cat and yes he deserves a hug, but I really think heād rather be left alone to enjoy some well-earned R&R. Give him an unlimited credit card, a beach holiday, and enough ibuprofen to kill a rhino.
