There was a time when films of opera were very pedestrian affairs; largely speaking, a camera was pointed at a proscenium arch and well upholstered singers were pretty well left to get on with it. All that changed with two filmed operas: Ingmar Bergman's beguiling film of Mozart's Magic Flute, and Joseph Losey’s radical and beautiful take on another Mozart masterpiece, Don Giovanni. Of the two, the Losey is by far the more cinematic experience. The director took his singers out of the opera house and filmed them against a variety of striking settings (and it is here that the impeccable cinematography of Gerry Fisher does full justice to Losey’s vision, triumphantly solving all the massively difficult lighting problems involved).
The sense of movement imparted by Losey would only work with singers who could move convincingly – and who were moreover, sufficiently skilled actors to realise the often complex revisionism of Losey's approach. Here, the director was particularly lucky in having Ruggeri Raimondi as the concupiscent Don; as well as being a great interpreter of the role, Raimondi is able to embody the conflict between the aristocratic and anti-authoritarian strains in this conflicted character – and admirers of Losey will spot familiar notions of betrayal and trust, along with the difficult relationship with father figures that is such a recurrent strain in his work. Losey was similarly lucky in the female singers he was able to work with: Kiri Te Kanawa is radiant as Donna, conveying a psychological depth to the character even at this relatively early stage of her career. If the camera is not kind to Teresa Berganza, who seems too matronly for the girlishly seductive Zerlina, she nevertheless boasts one of the most exquisite soprano voices in opera.
Finally, though, it is Losey's film, and the inventiveness on display here radically altered perceptions of how opera could be filmed. Those who have only seen the film in muddy TV or video incarnations will be amazed at the restoration: the images have never looked more glowing, and the surround mix does full justice to every felicity of Mozart's music.
Infamous womanizer Don Giovanni makes conquest after conquest, leaving seduced and abandoned women in his wake. When the ghost of a Commendatore he has killed appears, Giovanni is given a final chance to change his philandering ways or face the terrors of hell.
Joseph Losey’s hugely successful adaptation of Mozart’s greatest opera features wonderful performances from an excellent cast and stunning cinematography.
"A matchless Don Giovanni - the most successful movie of its kind I have ever seen " Evening Standard.
The London Nobody Knows / Les Bicyclettes de Belsize
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Don Giovanni (Joseph Losey, 1979)
