Review: DON GIOVANNI, Royal Ballet & Opera

The Royal Opera commences its new season with a psychologically and visually captivating Don Giovanni in the sixth revival of Kasper Holten's 2014 staging. Star turns in one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's darkest and best-loved operas are from superb Aigual Akhmetshina as Donna Elvira, a vocally compelling Dingle Yandell in the role of Masetto and Italian soprano Giulia Semenzato's arresting voice and sassy demeanour as peasant girl Zerlina.

The other big star of the show is designer Es Devlin's incredible, Escher-like set. Right from the start the overture becomes a great deal more than introductory music. Names of the multitude of women the sex-addicted Don Giovanni has seduced are scrawled, by means of clever projections from video designer Luke Halls and admirable lighting by Bruno Poet, across a grey stone stately house that revolves and morphs into a versatile interior space over two levels.

Revival director Greg Eldridge ensures this nightmare setting allows us to see the inner workings of Giovanni's mind as he descends from swaggering seducer (highly relevant today with the MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment) to a hellish end. Projections are unremitting with dizzying swirls, splodges of blood and fat black teardrops sweeping over the set and singers decked out in sumptuous costumes from Anja Vang Kragh who's worked with John Galliano for Dior and Stella McCartney.

It's not all doom and gloom, however, in a tale that's both witty and dark. There's good comic interplay between Giovanni (Canadian bass-baritone Gordon Bintner) and his servant Leporello (Roberto Tagliavini), reluctantly aiding his master who preys upon Donna Anna, Zerlina who's about to wed Masetto and Elvira's maid. Former mistress Elvira, torn between love and hate for the Don, is intent on revenge, as is Anna's fiancé Don Ottavio after Giovanni kills her father the Commendatore. Ultimately the ghost of the Commendatore (a bloodcurdling Andreas Bauer Kanabas) accepts Giovanni's invitation to supper and gets his comeuppance.

There's a great deal to appreciate about this interpretation with contemporary touches, from Rachel Willis Sørensen's tenderly heartsick Donna Anna, Borgan Volkov's gracious Ottavio, the floating ghosts of Giovanni's bedroom triumphs and the farcical comings and goings from doorways in Devlin's ever flexible and dominant set.

But there are also grumbles from some audience members around me, due to confusion over what the characters are doing towards the end of the first act, how the set overwhelms the singers at times, why isn't conductor Stefano Montanari in total control, and the unforgiveable cutting of the opera's final scene where Giovanni doesn't descend into the fiery flames of hell but simply crumples to the ground. "It's not as dramatic as it is in other versions," says one woman, who declares she wants her money back.

And yet, these grievances don't totally take away from a memorable production with a strong cast and imagery that will stick in the mind.

Don Giovanni runs at the Royal Opera House until 15 October.

Photo credits: Mihaela Bodlovic

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