Minnesota Opera stages 'Don Giovanni' from a woman's perspective

Don Giovanni. He's suave, sophisticated, seductive …

"A monster," according to Keturah Stickann.

She's the director of Minnesota Opera's new production of Mozart's opera, "Don Giovanni," which will look at the story of a notorious womanizer from a woman's perspective.

"He's not a sympathetic character," Stickann said before a rehearsal at the Minnesota Opera Center. "The first thing that happens is, if not an actual rape, an attempted rape. And I think that we can't gloss over the fact that this man sneaks into women's houses and tries to have sex with the women in there. This is a very particular type of character. He is, for all intents and purposes, a deviant."

But this monster, played by Seth Carico, meets his match, and, in Minnesota Opera's version, three women have a lot to do with that. Opening Saturday and running through May 21 at St. Paul's Ordway Music Theater, this "Don Giovanni" has women in all of the main creative positions: director Stickann, conductor Karen Kamensek, and designers Liliana Duque Piñeiro, Sarah Bahr and Mary Shabatura.

Three other women are key to bringing Stickann's vision to life: the sopranos who play his vengeful first victim, Donna Anna, his jilted wife, Donna Elvira, and the bride Giovanni tries to steal away on her wedding day, Zerlina. We asked Stickann and the women singing those roles how they see their characters' increased agency in this woman-powered production.

Donna Anna

"The first thing we notice about Anna is that, after she's been assaulted, she chases him and wants to find out who he is," Stickann said. "And that's a pretty strong person who's going to have that done to her and then not give up in terms of trying to ID this person."

Strength is something that soprano Symone Harcum wants to emphasize in the role.

"I see a woman whose life has been turned upside down and whose every action or statement, henceforth, is made under layers of grief, horror and pure rage," she said. "My approach to this role is to allow Anna to experience and show all of these emotions without apology. Too often, society judges women for not behaving the way 'we' think they should after tragedies such as these. A show of strength or anger instead of debilitating brokenness is so unfathomable for a woman's stereotypical fragility."

Donna Elvira

"Elvira is married to Giovanni," Stickann said. "They were married for three days before he ran out on her. More than likely, she's just found out that she's pregnant, and has come to tell him. We're in 1930s Catholic Spain [where Stickann has set this version]. A bastard child would not have been something that she would have wanted to go through."

"She has been deeply hurt and betrayed by Don Giovanni, and she wants to find him to bring him back with her," said soprano Sara Gartland, this production's Donna Elvira. "And if he won't return with her, she will make sure that he, and everyone in town, knows exactly how she feels."

Zerlina

"Mozart strove to evoke that the lower-class characters are actually the most clever, cunning and strategic," said Leah Brzyski, who sings the role of Zerlina. "In our production, I get to lean into this so much so that, dare I say, Zerlina is the only character in the show who is Don Giovanni's match in cunningness. She plays into his advances and flirtations in order to drive her own game of intrigue with her husband, Masetto."

In contrast to the naïve bumpkins found in some productions, Stickann sees Zerlina and Masetto's relationship as having a consensual BDSM — bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism — aesthetic.

"She flirts with guys, he beats them up," she said. "They have a whole game that the two of them play together. And it just so happens that Giovanni, unwittingly, gets into the middle of this game."

Minnesota Opera's 'Don Giovanni'

When: Saturday through May 21.

Where: Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul.

Tickets: $29-$240, available at 612-333-6669 or mnopera.org.

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.