The 1970s work opens and closes Zeffirelli’s career
Zeffirelli knows and loves 18th century opera, which he frequents assiduously, especially at the beginning of his career.
Over the years, however, it was Mozart’s masterpiece Don Giovanni that completely captured his attention.
In fact, Zeffirelli stages the opera on many occasions, often with very different solutions, each time delving into one of the many interpretative keys that Mozart’s masterpiece offers.
Furthermore, he does not deny the timeless charm that the character of Don Giovanni exerts on him.
“The character of Don Giovanni is a commentary on humanity valid for all time…the eternal conflict between the arrogance of man and the mystery of the Divine.”
In fact, it can be said that Zeffirelli’s career began and ended with his 18th century work.
The last production created by the Maestro and followed personally, now almost ninety years old, is in fact the grandiose Don Giovanni at the Verona Arena in 2012.
In the summer of 1946 Zeffirelli joined his mother’s cousin in Siena, the famous soprano Ines Alfani Tellini, who was the pioneering director of the first scenic art course in Italy at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana.
During his stays in Siena, the very young Zeffirelli thus designed his first scenes and his first costumes. So here is Livietta and Tracollo, or The astute peasant by Giovan Battista Pergolesi in 1946 and other eighteenth-century rarities, mostly funny Neapolitan interludes.
Franco Zeffirelli thus follows the rediscovery of the musical repertoire of that century which for some years had been characterizing the Sienese institution founded by Count Chigi.
In the 1950s, the comic operas of the 18th century still constituted a predominant aspect of Zeffirelli’s productions, especially on the prestigious stage of the Piccola Scala. Thus it is the turn of productions characterized by absolute fidelity to the theatrical spirit of the Enlightenment. Among these are La Cecchina or The Good Daughter by Niccolò Piccinni in 1957 and Le Astuzie Feminine by Domenico Cimarosa in 1960.
Also in Milan in 1960, Lo Frate Innamorato by Giovan Battista Pergolesi follows the same lines as the previous comic operas, but resorting to unprecedented solutions for the time such as the use of raw canvas for the creation of scenes and costumes.
He then continued his acquaintance with Zeffirelli and the 18th century. In fact, in 1960 Georg Friederich Händel’s Alcina was staged at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The latter sees the Italian debut of the great Australian soprano Joan Sutherland with whom Zeffirelli will often work later, creating unique masterpieces. In fact, he says of her: “together we paved our way, we grew side by side”.
Zeffirelli’s first staging of Mozart’s Don Giovanni arrived in Naples in 1956, in the small court theater of the Royal Palace, which he also directed. Other productions would then follow until the memorable one in 1972 at the Vienna Staatsoper.
The scenographic vision is highly innovative and recalls the great tradition of eighteenth-century engravers.
Then it was the turn of the masterful 1990 staging at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York conducted by James Levine. The beautiful scenic layout of this version of Don Giovanni testifies to a further rereading of Mozart’s opera, underlining its aspects of “playful drama” according to the very definition of the libretto.
The Maestro’s last Don Giovanni dates back to 2012 at the Verona Arena with costumes by Maurizio Millenotti and orchestral direction by Daniel Oren. The monumentality of the scenic layout is unforgettable, reproducing a pavilion from the Royal Gardens of Dresden.