Ceoldráma Amuigh Faoin Aer ag Cé an Adhmaid, Bleá Cliath

Agus chomh hannamh atá an ceoldráma i mBaile Átha Cliath tá ceist á iarraidh ar duine nuair a freastalaíonn sé nó sí ar seó nach dtaitníonn leis nó léi. An fhírinne a insint nó a seachaint, ar eagla go gcaillfí misneach lucht cheoldráma go deo?

Bíonn ceoldrámaí amuigh faoin aer ar siúl sa gcathair sa Lúnasa, i ngearraí le Bárdas na Cathrach ag Cé an Adhmaid, cois Life, BÁC 8. Bhí Don Giovanni le Mozart, an ceoldráma foirfe dár le Gounod, ar siúl acu inné agus isteach leis an Spailpín chun breathnú air.

Bhí an gearraí lán le slua, ach thugas faoi déara gurbh daoine buailte go maith in aois ab ea an chuid is mó acu - ag am lóin i rith lae oibre, is bia choirp in ionad bia anama atá ag taisteal ón bpobal is mó.

Bhí ar daoine fanacht ina seasamh mura raibh suíocháin acu. Bhí roinnt suíochán infillte ann ar an bhféar - bhí a gceacht fóghlaimthe ag cuid an slua ag Aonach na gCapall ag an RDS céanna seo, sílim. Ach ag breathnú thall is abhus, bhuail sé ar an Spailpín go mbeadh sé deacair áire slua a choinnéal mura raibh siad ar a suamhneas gan suíocháin - an ndéanfaí suaimhneas an lucht féachána tionchar ar an gclár agus mar a gcasfaí ceoldráma á thógann trí uair is leath a chánadh go hiomlán?

Ní dhearna. Bhí tuairim greannmhar súgach ag na ceoltóirí Don Giovanni a thaispeáint mar galfaire gairmiúil, agus galfaire gairmiúil atá i bponc leis na mná sa nuacht na laethanta seo, cosuil leis an Don féin fadó.

Bhí cuma níos mó alickadoo an rugbaí istigh i dteach tábhairne Kiely's, an Domhnach Broc, ar an Don seo againne ná ar an ngalfaire is fearr sa domhain mór ach ba chuma más fhéidir leis na ceoltóirí áire an slua a choinnéal. Agus níl sé sin easca nuair atá ort ceoldráma atá scríofa don amharchlann sa tráthnóna a chur ar stáitse ag am lóin amuigh faoin aer.

Tá Don Giovanni scríofa i gceithre ghníomh. Rinne an comhlacht iarracht na gníomha a ghearradh chomh maith mar ab fhéidir agus bhí fear ann mar treoraí a n-inseodh don slua cad a dtarlódh os a gcomhair. Ach, mo léan, níor ghearr a dhótháin.

Is é an fadhb le sin ná go raibh an-iomarca gnó idir cathain a mbeadh an treoraí ar an ardán agus cathain a bhfillfeadh sé. Bhí se ró-easca dul amú leis an scéal agus an amhránaíocht.

Níl aithne nó meas ag an gcuid is mó daoine ar an gceoldráma. Le lucht an cheoldráma, is gnáth fotheideil istigh san amharclann. Leo féin amach faoin aer, tá níos mó cabhrach uathu ná óráid idir gníomha a maireann leathuair a chlog nó tuilleadh.

Agus an áiria catalóige a chasadh aige, bhris Leporello an ceathrú balla agus isteach sa slua leis, ag canadh le mná éigin. Shúigh sé síos taobh thiar léi agus seo leis:

"Nella bionda egli ha l'usanza
Di lodar la gentilezza,
Nella bruna la costanza,
Nella bianca la dolcezza."

Is cur síos ag Leporello ar mar a chuireann an Don faoi í an áiria seo. Cialltar an píosa sin ná mar a thaitníonn na mná eagsúla leis an Don. Aistrithe agam féin:

"Is gnáth leis moladh
na fionn as a ngalántacht
na donn as a dílseacht
na bána as a milseacht."

Greanmhar go leor - dá mbeadh an Iodáilis agat. Ach ní raibh tuiscint dá laghad ag an mbean bhocht cad a bhí ó Leporello mar níor mhínigh an treoraí an áiria catalóige ar dtús. Bhí an meas céanna ag an mbean ar Leporello taobh thiar di na mar a bhí ag Little Miss Muffet ar an domhan alla.

Níos measa arís, níor chóir do Leporello an ceathrú balla a bhriseach. Bhí a dhualgas roimh Donna Elvira - cantar an áiria catalóige do Donna Elvira, ach isteach le Leporollo sa slua in ionad an scéal a mhínigh le Donna Elvira. Dóchreite.

Bhí an t-amhránaíocht agus an ceol ceart go leor, agus an aisteoireacht níos fearr arís, Donna Elvira féin ach go háirithe. Is breá an smaoineamh é, an ceoldráma amuigh faoin aer, ach caithfear níos mó iarrachta a chur isteach agus a ghlacadh gur taispéanas ama lóin é seo, os comhair daoine nach bhfuil chomh cleachta leis na gceoldráma go dtuigfidís cuid den áiria catalóige. Caithfear an treoraí filleadh níos minice chun gluaiseacht an scéil a choinnéal beo.

Agus níos tábhachtaí ná dada eile, caithfear tuiscint agus glacadh níl ach uair amháin ag daoine mar ám lóin. Bhí ormsa imeacht nuair nach raibh an seó ach leath-críochnaithe, mar thugadar uair ar an gcéad dhá ghníomh. Teipeadh dóchreite.

Is breá an rud é an ceoldráma, agus ceoldráma amuigh faoi aer cosuil le seo, a dtógann áilleacht an cheoil amach ón dorchadas isteach faoi sholas gréine. Ach caithfear an seó a ghearradh gan faitíos gan trócaire go mbeidh sé tuillte le am lóin, le gnáthduine agus, go h-áirithe, le daoine a gcaithfear fanacht ina seasamh ar feadh na h-uaire.

Agus go raibh orm imeacht roimh deireadh, níor chuala mé críoch cailiúil Don Giovanni inné - teacht dealbh an Commendatore chun an Don a chuireadh chun tintí ifrinn. Seo chugaibh é anois, ar You Tube beannaithe. Bainígí sult.




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Don Giovanni at the Gaiety

Anyone who wants to find out what all the fuss is about in opera could do a lot worse than to make his or her way as far as the Gaiety next month, where Opera Ireland will perform Mozart’s Don Giovanni, a constant delight to audiences in the 222 years since its premier in Prague in 1787.

Mozart wrote or collaborated on twenty-two operas during his short life – not a man to spend much time leaning on the shovel, Mozart – but three in particular stand out as exceptional, even for him. They are 1786’s Le Nozze di Figaro, 1787’s Don Giovanni and 1790’s Così Fan Tutte.

The reason those three stand out is because of the man who wrote the librettos. Most opera librettists don’t get a look-in – who ever raises a glass to Francesco Maria Piave? – but Lorenzo Da Ponte was a horse of a different colour. Born a Jew, Da Ponte’s father converted to Catholicism for reasons of eighteenth century expediency. Da Ponte, in an in for a penny, in for a pound moment, took holy orders, but was run out of that, and out of his home town of Venice as well, for showing a marked preference for committing sins of the flesh rather than condemning them.

Da Ponte eventually pitched up in Vienna and the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II, known to history – insofar as he’s remembered at all – as Marie Antoinette’s Da. Joseph appointed Da Ponte as Poet to the Theatres in 1783, and that was how Da Ponte ended up sharing a desk with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart thirteen years later.

There is no question about which of the two supplied the genius in the relationship. There’s a marvellous vignette at the start of the movie Amadeus that shows just how overwhelming Mozart’s talents were in comparison to, well, just about anyone else, really. But Mozart still needed a dramatist to supply the bones on which to pin the melodies, and Da Ponte was just the man.

Figaro, Giovanni and Così are music dramas about boys meeting girls. But whereas much of opera is, by necessity, painted in broad strokes, there is a tremendous depth in characterisation and dramaturgy in those three operas that is very seldom replicated elsewhere in the canon. Da Ponte was a man of the world, one who was no stranger to fighting in the lists of love, and he was able to bring that vast experience to bear in his writing. Indeed, in the case of Don Giovanni, the greatest lover of all, Da Ponte’s own memoir of the composition of that masterpiece suggests he was just the man for the job:

A bottle of Tokay at my right, the inkstand before me, and a box of Spanish snuff on my left, I sat at my table for twelve consecutive hours. My landlady's daughter, a pretty girl of sixteen (for whom I wish I could have felt only paternal affection) came to my room whenever I called for her, which was very often, especially when it seemed to me that I was losing my inspiration.

Lock up your daughters, indeed.

Don Giovanni is the story of man who loved women, and whom women loved back. Until such time as he dumped them, of course, at which stage he invariably sends in his valet, Leporello, to clean up the mess while he himself moves on to further conquests.

The opera is subtitled “Il Dissoluto Punito, The Rake Punished,” as Don Giovanni meets his comeuppance at the end, but raking does not meet the disapproval now that it did once. Vide Colin Farrell. So a modern interpretation now sees the amorous Don as something of a Hugh Hefner of the Enlightenment, here for a good time, not a long time.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of that, the eternal human drama of boys and girls and the glory of the music remains magnificent and inviolate through the ages. Kierkegaard said he thought Don Giovanni perfect; George Bernard Shaw was obsessed with it, and wrote in a review in 1891 that he never expected to see a performance of Don Giovanni he liked in his lifetime. As the notorious old curmudgeon still had over half a century left in his span, An Spailpín hopes GBS found a production that was at least middling in the following fifty-nine years.

Opera Ireland have rather cleverly cast two brothers, Paul and Peter Edelmann, as the Don and Leporello. Leporello represents us, Joe Schmoe, in the drama. Ostensibly there as a foil to the dissolute and feckless Don, there are hints throughout the text that Leporello only wishes he had half the success himself. It will be fascinating to see how they tease it out.

Interestingly, as well as the shows in the theatre itself, Opera Ireland are broadcasting the opening night performance in two venues, the Park Inn Hotel in Smithfield Village, Dublin 7, and Meeting House Square in Temple Bar, Dublin 2. It’s a bold and praiseworthy initiative, but the scheduling is unfortunate. Because at half past five on that Saturday evening the rugby teams of Ireland and England will be having their own operatic encounter, and it may not be easy to concentrate on the opera while a gang of boozed up rugger fans razes Temple Bar.

But never mind – as a taster to the show, here’s the great Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel performing the Catalogue Aria, where Leporello reveals to a horrified Donna Elvira that she’s just a single name on a long, long list, from a performance in 1997. Enjoy.








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