28 May 2025
Herding the cats for a DG field trip this fall. FAQs at the bottom.
Dudes,
I want to fulfill my promise on this topic—and I’m genuinely excited about the potential outcome—so here are a few thoughts on a possible Don Giovanni field trip.
Patty and I have tickets for the Saturday October 25 1:00pm matinee performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. We see many operas, but this will be our first of the new season and we’re psyched. (We saw the same production last year and signed up again because it was just that good.) There’s much more to say about the cast and production, but that can wait for now.
The Met is always great, but we’re seeing Don Giovanni again for another reason: It’s arguably the greatest opera ever written. Really—if you could only see one opera in your life, DG might be it. This is especially true if you lean dark and cynical, and aren’t looking for easy answers. The combination of Don Giovanni, at the Met, in NYC, in late October (especially for Vermonters) is simply too good to pass up.
If you’re curious about what you’d be in for, here are some resources:
For those who end up joining us and are interested, Patty and I have a lot more to say if you want to hear it. Here’s a link to our plans for the entire 25-26 season.
Be Aware:
Don Giovanni is a popular opera, and tickets can sell out. They’re also cheaper (and come with better seat options) if you buy early—same goes for hotels. So the sooner you commit, the better. If enough of us go, we could also plan dinner or other activities.
Since we’re Met subscribers, I can buy your tickets now—they won’t be available to the general public until sometime in later June I believe. There are lots of seating and pricing options available, but expect to spend $200–300 per ticket. Patty and I usually get Dress Circle seats, which I recommend as a good balance of price and experience. But pick whatever suits you—it’s the same show either way.
Accommodations:
I don’t have specific hotel recommendations, but I suggest avoiding Times Square. It’s overrun with tourists (and the blech that comes with that). While TS is convenient, you’ll likely have a better experience staying elsewhere. I’m happy to offer more brutally honest biases if you want help choosing between various other options you’re considering.
You’ll probably want to stay the nights of October 24 and 25, but do what works for you. One night in NYC isn’t really enough—even with a matinee. In terms of travel, Patty and I usually drive to New Haven, park at the station there, and take the Metro North train into New York’s Grand Central station. Flights can be cheap in October, too, so that’s worth checking into. Could you fly in, see the show, and fly out the same day? Technically yes. Should you? Absolutely not. But a Saturday morning flight down and Sunday flight back might suit your needs…
So Who’s in? I’ll hassle you at the next UMLS meeting, but feel free to make your own arrangements if you’d rather. No gatekeeping here. I just hope everyone’s in, with your wifeys, and we can have a big opera party in the city while the last Vermont leaves vanish in the rain. I’m okay missing that part.
Rispondetemi!
(Peter is likely the only one who’ll get the reference right away, but you all will after you see DG.)
/matt
A: No. Opera is whatever you want it to be. If you want to dress up, you can, and you can buy overpriced champagne and snacks, or eat in the schmancy cafe there. But we usually avoid these. Unless it’s a gala premiere or other special event, the Met is pretty chill. We love opera and think it’s a bit special, so tend to dress in not-jeans, but plenty of people just come as they are. Things are even more casual for a matinee such as this DG.
A: Don Giovanni, a rich and powerful misogynist (and likely serial rapist) eventually meets his much-deserved horrible end. Along the way, examples of innocent youthful love, terrible betrayal, awful trauma, and class conflict abound. The Don’s faithful servant provides both comic relief and some help to his victims. Any resemblance between Dpm Giovanni and Don Trump is coincidental, but it’s really close sometimes. DJT just hasn’t been dragged to hell by the devil yet.
A: Indeed, why not do that too? I think opera is a unique kind of entertainment that combines music and drama in ways that nothing else quite does. At the Met, you’ll see perhaps the best opera house in the world, offering both classic and new operas, with respect for both hundreds of years of history and new, cutting-edge ideas. Always featuring the best musicians around, on the stage and in the pit. I don’t love every opera I see, but damn, there’s always something amazing.
A: Don Giovanni is in Italian, but even when the opera is in English, it’s usually pretty tough to understand. Singers emphasize tone and melody over comprehensability, but luckily, there are “Met titles” in a display on the back of the seat in front of you, where you can see a translation of what’s being sung in real time. You can also shut them off. You can also have a look at my spreadsheet for the blow-by-blow.
A: Fair enough. Operatic caterwauling can be off-putting, particularly if you haven’t heard it much before, and if you tune out you might find yourself wondering “when is this going to end?” It takes a bit of experience to really grok some of it, at which point you will find it amazing and beautiful. But even to the new listener, there are moments of unsurpassed beauty, crushing sadness, fierce anger, supernatural horror, and even hilarious slapstick to reward you. Sometimes they’re right there, sometimes you have to work a bit to appreciate them. In Don Giovanni, there is a very high ratio of awesome to boring, which is one reason we picked it. You can see from the pictures that this production is staged in the modern day, and that makes it more relatable and accessible than if it were staged in 1787 when Mozart wrote it.
A: Great idea, but hard to plan. One never knows if there will be any available at all, or where the seats will be located. A nice way to fill some last-minute dead time if you’re already in the city, but not a great idea to plan a trip around.
