If you have heard opera music outside Newcomb Hall recently, you may have been within earshot of a rehearsal for Opera Viva’s spring opera performance, Mozart’s Don Giovanni. For the past few weeks, the 20-person cast and 15-person student orchestra pit has been working both indoors and out to prepare for the series of performances that will take place in the Newcomb Hall courtyard this weekend.
The show tells the story of Don Giovanni, “a womanizing, immoral guy ... who is always trying to seduce other women,” said Melanie Ashkar, the play’s director and a second-year College student.
Don Giovanni, which is Mozart’s adaptation of the classic Don Juan legend, mixes drama and humor and will be performed by a cast that consists of both undergraduate and graduate students, she said.
“We had so much incredible talent come out of the woodwork,” Ashkar said, adding that cast members responded well to the show’s modern adaptation and many of its challenging aspects. Students researched and explored many of Don Giovanni’s underlying themes, including murder, promiscuity, sex, rape and drug and alcohol abuse. They then adapted and examined those themes in a modern college setting.
“I’ve been in a lot of shows, but I’ve never directed before,” Ashkar said. “It’s been a really big challenge.”
The performance is co-sponsored by the University Program’s Comittee, the Parent’s Committee, the McIntire Department of Music and the Cultural Programming Board, said Haley Anderson, the show’s production manager and a second-year College student. Despite the weather, long rehearsals and the occasional chilly evenings, “It’s been extremely, extremely rewarding,” Ashkar said.
—compiled by Betsy Graves
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