Bardo of boredom (***½)

Kirill Serebrennikov directs Don Giovanni in Berlin [live]

Requiem : Introitus © Frol Podlesnyi

From Wim Wenders' non-interpretative theater at the Staatsoper to the super-interpretative theater of Kirill Serebrennikov at the Komische Oper, a theater that refuses to exist without adding layers of meaning. He had managed to avoid the latter during the sparkling Cosi fan tutte, the only production I saw from Serebrennikov's Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy. This Don Giovanni, however, is once again the kind of production where you have to read the program booklet carefully to understand what might be meant by what is shown on stage. That has never been a sure-fire recipe for success, and I hope that Serebrennikov will not continue to waste his undeniable talent on such exhausting detours.