The notorious lech and womanizer Don Giovanni (Ruggero Raimondi) kills the father (John Macurdy) of a woman (Edda Moser) he attempted to seduce. She makes her fiance (Kenneth Riegel) swear to avenge her father's death. Meanwhile as the libertine attempts to make a new conquest (Teresa Berganza), a discarded flame (Kiri Te Kanawa) arrives on the scene seeking revenge. Joseph Losey's film of Mozart's opera is not a filmed opera but an opera movie. It's not just the sumptuous visuals and the Venice locations (though the Mozart opera is set in Spain) though they help. Losey and his cinematographer Gerry Fisher's camera glides sinuously around and puts us in the thick of the action rather than keeping us at a distance. Opera on film can be problematic. What works on an opera stage is often at a disadvantage on film. Raimondi's Don Giovanni could well make a compelling Giovanni on stage but the camera reveals a rather portly unattractive middle aged man, not the most convincing of Casanovas. Also conventions that are acceptable on stage are glaring on film. For example, when Don Giovanni and his servant (Jose Van Dam) wear masks of each other's faces in order to confuse Giovanni's conquests, everyone seems to ignore the fact that the masks are immobile and held by hand and we can easily see the real person's face underneath! Still, it's a stunning looking film and gloriously sung and some of the performers (especially Te Kanawa) seem quite comfortable in front of the camera.
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