In this interview, DVO Managing Director Carolyn Steinberg speaks with singer Eric Barsness about his role and approach in Don Giovanni.
CS: Eric, you will be singing the role of Leporello in DVO’s upcoming production of Don Giovanni. Will you please give us a quick overview of the opera and Leporello’s role in it?
EB: Don Giovanni is Mozart’s version of the Don Juan legend. With words (libretto) by Mozart’s contemporary, Lorenzo DaPonte, the opera depicts several of Don Giovanni’s amorous conquests and, at the end, his comeuppance when one of the victims returns from the dead. Throughout, Leporello is Don Giovanni’s manservant and therefore his accomplice, too, to some degree, since the servant often has to cover for the master or help him out of trouble. Although he is employed by Don Giovanni, Leporello doesn’t want to be a servant and sings that he wants to be a gentleman, in part because he generally longs for the easier life of a nobleman and in part because he specifically is not at ease with the unpleasant tasks imposed on him by Don Giovanni.
CS: That’s quite rebellious, isn’t it? A servant singing that he doesn’t want to serve anymore?
EB: Yes, the opera was written in 1787 in Austria, while in France the unrest that led to the French Revolution was taking shape and notions of individual freedom were spreading throughout Europe. Mozart also incorporated ideas breaking from the established social order in The Marriage of Figaro, again with DaPonte as librettist. As a joke and a bit of self-promotion, Mozart quotes the Marriage of Figaro in Don Giovanni. In addition, there are other characters in Don Giovanni who rebel against the status quo: Massetto fumes that Don Giovanni wants to exercise the ancient seigniorial right (whereby the nobility could claim a peasant’s bride before the peasant did) and Zerlina, Massetto’s fiancé, initially goes along with the flirtation, then tries to escape. Many analyses have been written regarding the social and political commentary within this opera, which resonates on many levels: comedy, drama, tragedy, and lots of straddling the lines between these categories. The balancing of these characteristics gives directors a lot of leeway in interpreting this work, since the director can use the elements of theatre to shape the viewer’s impression.
For me, it is humbling to be a part of such a great work of art, to be recreating this role performed by so many wonderful singers over the past two centuries. When I was a choreographer and dancer, I created a piece called “Death in Vienna,” a tragicomic work about a Mozart fanatic. In the piece, the character declared Don Giovanni the greatest creation ever made by a human–greater than any work of literature or painting, greater than the space shuttle! That character was largely speaking for me, though perhaps stating it a little more strongly than I would now.
CS: As an opera singer, how do you go about preparing to perform a role?
EB: There are several different areas that I must prepare. On a musical level, I must know the music, the words in Italian, and their meanings. Dramatically, I must know the character and how I plan to reflect him in my motions, demeanor, and actions. This includes having the physical preparation necessary, having the strength, stamina and agility to move as Leporello would. If Leporello would dive under a table or jump off a chair, I need to be able to do that.
CS: How do you go about learning the music and words?
EB: I start by speaking the text, just reading it aloud, with an Italian dictionary nearby. First I read it with the rhythm of the words themselves. Then I read it with the rhythms that Mozart wrote.
CS: Does Mozart usually follow the natural rhythm of the spoken words?
EB: Yes and no. I’ve never encountered so many contractions of words, where there are two words pressed together to be sung on one note. Overall, though, the music enhances the meaning, and once I’ve gotten through the initial awkwardness, I find that the music is suited not only to the words but also to the emotions, meaning, context, and substance of the work as a whole. The contractions create a fluidity and naturalness in both the words and the music. My goal is to deliver the text with such clarity that a native Italian could understand my words. And again, it’s humbling to work with this great text. Lorenzo DaPonte was a genius, writing the most eloquent, succinct, poetic, witty, poignant and funny words for this stunning collaboration with Mozart. Then, after learning to speak the text, I speak it while playing the melody on the piano. This allows my ear to hear the melody first, and my mouth and brain to keep pace rhythmically.
CS: Do you work with coaches or teachers?
EB: I work with a voice teacher (Sharon Claveau) on a regular basis for vocal technique issues, taking excerpts from the opera to my lessons and focusing on those areas that are vocally challenging. I’ll also have meetings to work on the text–both pronunciation and accurate translation–with a friend who is not a musician but is Roman and has a theatre background. Some of Italian of this opera is archaic, and there are double meanings and witticisms that are hidden to a non-native speaker. I’ll also coach with our DVO Artistic Director and conductor Jim Blanton on musical and interpretive aspects.
