Before...

This production of Don Giovanni had its premiere in winter 2020, but before I had a chance to see it, Covid happened, and everything closed down. They did show it online at Stage24 (recording still to be seen until Dec. 23) and it made a good impression on me, so I was looking forward to seeing it live yesterday. To start with I was disappointed. Somehow it seemed much cruder, especially the "humour" was tiresome, nor was the singing what I had expected, especially in the beginning. Of course the cast was mostly new, as was the conductor Hannu Lintu, only Don Giovanni (Tuomas Pursio) and The Commandant (Koit Soasepp) were the same as in 2020. Of the others Mihails Čulpajevs as Don Ottavio was by far the best. Fortunately the performance improved towards the end, and I went home happy. But all this is old news, and I don't really have anything more to say.

Added later: I might have mentioned the only original idea: that The Commandant came to visit as a dead body stolen from the morgue by the avengers and spoke through a ghetto blaster.