After doing a series of lewd comics for the Portland Opera last year, resident opera historian Bob Kingston approached me with an intriguing avatar project. I’ve had a lot of fun incorporating all his hobbies and professional hats into this illustration over the past couple weeks. Can you guess what they all are?
Also: since I keep promising (and failing) to do some kind of in-depth process post, I thought I’d compromise by stringing together the various stages of this project into a single image. You can see the alterations throughout the design process below, from thumbnails to inks to washes to color! We toyed with the idea of including text, but eventually decided that the image worked better on its own.
So, as some of you may know, I attended a rehearsal of Don Giovanni earlier this week, courtesy of the Portland Opera. The company runs this great outreach program where cartoonists come and live sketch rehearsals in the days leading up to the show. I’m no opera buff, but the experience was fantastic. Stellar cast, dramatic staging, and no shortage of saucy thrills. If you’ve been wanting more bang for your operatic buck, this is the show for you.
Unfortunately, these sketches fail to capture the pathos and emotional torment of the show itself. I have, instead, chosen to focus mainly on the boning. There’s a lot of that.
Don Giovanni, his peasant rival, Masetto, and Masetto’s ridiculous hat.Leporello, unwilling servant to Don Giovanni. This was the happiest I saw him in the entire production.Most of the time he looked like this.With good reason.Giovanni spends a fair amount of time attempting to blame Leporello for his own sexual dalliances.Masetto is rarely pleased with Giovanni’s party tactics.Frustrated by his master’s shenanigans, Leporello threatens to leave Giovanni’s service.Giovanni, however, convinces him to stay and switch clothes with his master, in order to go seduce some more babes. The disguise is somewhat lacking.Meanwhile, Giovanni completely fails to impersonate Leporello.Leporello learns that being Don Giovanni has its upsides.Meanwhile, the grisly evidence of Giovanni’s murderous tendencies (displayed to their fullest at the very top of the show), continues to slide down the set.Don Ottavio, fiance to the ravishing Donna Anna, is shocked when his beloved expresses her attraction to Don Giovanni.At Giovanni’s party, he tries a new tactic.Donna Anna, however, is too busy belting it like a rockstar to notice her fiancé’s change of attire. (Seriously. The women in this show fucking KILLED IT.)In the process of lamenting her father’s murder at the hands of Don Giovanni, she makes an alarming discovery.The Commendatore sings accusingly at Don Giovanni from beyond the grave! (Or does he?)Leporello fears the Commendatore’s fiery gaze, but Giovanni knows the truth.Don Ottavio makes a last ditch effort to grab the attentions of his beloved.The Commendatore rises from the grave to deliver a striking revelation! (Also Giovanni gets whisked away to eternal damnation and there’s a big moralistic finale or something I wasn’t really paying attention to anything but the Merkin Mystery at this point.)
And they all lived happily every after!
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Seriously, folks, with the flippancy of my goofy sketches aside, I suggest you all go check out this show. I had a wonderful time. To sweeten the deal, those of you in the know (i.e. everyone reading this blog) can get your tickets for the Thursday (11/8) show at 50% off! Head over here and enter the password MOZART to get in on the action.
If you enjoyed this you can find other excellent commentary, artwork, and cheap gags from the evening’s cartoonists and live bloggers on Twitter under the hashtag #pdxgiovanni.
