Mozart's rogue from Hell "Don Giovanni" opens season at Berkeley Opera; Eugene Brancoveanu shameless

Don Giovanni/Berkeley Opera/Eugene Brancoveanu

Mozart's "Don Giovanni" performed shamelessly by Eugene Brancoveanu in black leather pants

Mozart's Don Giovanni opened at Berkeley Opera in the new performing arts center at El Cerrito High School with some clever innovations in staging but relatively no visual appeal, the characters appearing in contemporary street clothes and yoga outfits complete with yoga mats. Nevertheless each singer rang out Mozart in fine voice and it's always fun to hear the harpsicord.

Eugene Brancoveanu in the title role carried the show shamelessly with world class stamina, bravado, arrogance and sophistication. Brancoveanu seemed to be channeling Jim Morrison during his decline with Adam Ant rock star eye liner, hair gel and black leather pants with an often open shirt. Basically the show remains a morality tale about what happens to bad men when they won't stop. More specifically, stay out of the womens' yoga class young man.

Here's the new video of the catalogue aria: Don Giovanni global accounting.

The most amusing and original moments came during the catalogue song. A google Earth icon appeared on screen in back of the stage and Leporello, performed by Igor Vierira, ran through the bodycount. Bulletin board pins marked the thousands of locations around the globe and then the screen moved to an iPod. Thumbnail photos of women from classical paintings like the Girl with the Pearl Earring or Whistler’s Mother and other robust nudes appeared in the address book, the tacks ticking off each conquest nailed by Don Giovanni. It was inspired to say the least.

There’s a great staging moment when the locals come bearing arms to kill Don Giovanni, with everything from a racquetball racket to a speargun, all seen in comic silhouette.

The performers also made good use of the new facilities by climbing outside the railings on the second level and singing out above the audience. Brancoveanu and Vieira emerged on one side; Aimee Puentes as Donna Elvira made the audience giggle in her Juliette moment on the other side of the theater later as she was serenaded while flossing one evening.

I also enjoyed the black and white video with the creepy gothic crypt. The glowing ghost emerges to claim Don Giovanni’s soul and take him to Hades.

Mark Streshinsky announced the production from the stage, saying he had gone to high school at El Cerrito High but it didn’t look as it did then. Applause. He seemed relaxed and affable, indeed in his element. Carol the woman sitting next to my friend Susan Mills and I said Mark’s mother is a writer of historical novels.

The funding for the new 600-seat theater seems to have come from retrofitting efforts.

Unfortunately there was little historical in this zero budget production with the characters wearing contemporary street clothes and looking like college students. My friend said it looked like a dress rehearsal. The yoga class scene especially looked casual and contemporary, with Don Giovanni crashing the class to pick up women. He seemed to be a slapstick Trojan Horse as the only man in the class. However only one or two women looked to be in shape. Similarly Don Giovanni could have kept his shirt on as his non-athletic form was a give away but appropriate to somebody given to debauchery and indulgence. It reminded me of the Foster Farms chicken commercials with the imposter white trash trying to pass for fresh, lean and natural.

Eating with one's fingers

The sushi eating scene illustrated this nobleman’s lack of manners and showed a fun absence of self-consciousness. The mark of a real professional is a sense of uninhibitedness and self-effacing humor and Brancoveanu rose to the occasion, earning his star status.

I imagine actor Tom Hulce and producer/director Saul Zaentz, who filmed Amadeus out of the film studio in Berkeley, would be proud of Brancoveanu here.

Speaking of historical, fellow patron Carol mentioned the Julia Morgan Theater, the Berkeley Opera’s former home. She said now the singers have dressing rooms. The new theater seems twice the size of Julia Morgan Theater, which was a church. The house looked full. Two womens’ bathrooms as well and so the line formed for the mens’ room. El Cerrito Plaza BART is a short ten minute walk away. You also get some local amenities like Giant Burger, and a couple of gentlemen sat outside happily munching huge burgers while waiting before the opera began, to the amusement of hungry patrons who got a whiff of the burger aroma. Inside the usual treats were $2.00 each, cookies and coffee and such.

Orchestra pit

During intermission I approached the orchestra pit, a deep one with not even a hint of the musicians below. Only the conductor Alexander Katsman could be seen elevated on his platform. One patron told the conductor the patron sat only half way back and everything sounded muffled, especially the violins. Where’s the microphone, he asked? Katsman said the mic is aimed at the stage, it’s for the monitor. Katsman told me the new facility is an improvement over the former home but nothing is perfect.

Don Giovanni will be performed two more times, Friday, February 26 at 8:00 p.m.; Sunday, February 28 at 2:00 p.m.

For more info: www.BerkeleyOpera.org

Don Giovanni opens with new performing arts center; new crew

More on things Mozartian:

Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio: Growing up by choosing love and independence

Cornelius Meister makes opera debut in US with The Abduction from the Seraglio

Cornelius Meister on Oktoberfest at Opera at the Baseball Park

Mozart's school for lovers staged by Merolini: the tricks you play

SF Opera Program's Merolini stage romantic comedy by Mozart

For more from this writer, check out the SF theater column at: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-30274-SF-Theater-Examiner

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Berkeley Opera presents quintessential libertine in February with Mozart's Don Giovanni