Two hours of running time with San Diego Ballet filled up the weekend with spectacular beauty, making the audience feel like they were in the middle of medieval Spain. Don Juan, second to none in Casanova’s league, wanders around the world to seduce every woman who catches his eye, starting his voyage from a Spanish lord’s house.
The performance is more in tune with Lord Byron’s epic poem rather than the traditional Mozart opera, “Don Giovanni.” Compared to Mozart’s conjoining of characters from opera seria (noble and serious style) and opera buffa (comic style), “Many Loves of Don Juan” is more focused on comedic incidents and accidents.
Don Juan is a sociable and mirthful man when it comes to women. He sometimes makes foes – such as the partners of the girls he flirts with; however, he isn’t the greatest target of revenge. He is portrayed simply as a person who revels in his life – but only with women. This can be seen as quite provoking, but his affected manner was depicted as a cute bluff. Marshall Whiteley (Don Juan) expressed Don Juan’s lightness cleverly with a mischievous face and bombastic action.
A scene with famous lines from the opera, “Look, this fat little book is entirely full of the names of his sweethearts. … In Italy, 640. In Germany, 231. … In Spain, already 1,003. … He calls the tall ones majestic. The little ones are always charming,” unfolded through Acts I and II, following Don Juan’s footsteps. He hits on all the vendor girls in the market, all the gypsies, and more. Lavish choreography, along with splendid costumes and props, filled the stage to the brim.
The saga of Don Juan floating, being in mortal danger, and being a stranger in a strange land evoked a sense of reading the odyssey of Mark Twain or Jules Verne. An epic tale of Don Juan’s travel scene presented the innocence of childhood with adventures and indecent desires with women simultaneously. Especially, an elegant group dance of ballerinas with red dresses, and the rich sounds of Spanish guitar in Act II were captivating enough to bewitch Don Juan and the audience.
The chemistry between a married couple of San Diego Ballet, Stephanie Maiorano and Tonatiuh Gomez was noticeable in Act III. A peasant bride (one of Maiorano’s roles) is the one who refuses Don Juan’s lure and remains loyal to her groom, Gomez. Their dance of love illuminated the stage, and their smiles seemed genuinely heartfelt. Since both Maiorano and Gomez have several different roles throughout the performance, Gomez is the one who stabs Maiorano in Act I when they are gypsies; however, eventually, these two get married at the end when they are peasants.
“I didn’t think we would bring Don Juan back because Javier Velasco (choreographer) created it for Max Tchernychev (former dancer), a very specific dancer,” said Maiorano in the previous interview. However, Whiteley spotted Don Juan with the dance at times bold, at times poignant. Gomez’s jump was conspicuously high, as Maiorano mentioned in the previous interview, and Maiorano also perfectly embodies seven roles throughout three acts. It’s good to look forward to the next performances of San Diego Ballet.
