Opera review: Don Giovanni at Royal Opera House
MOZART’s opera Don Giovanni has the subtitle “Il Dissoluto Punito” (The Libertine Punished) which suggests a moralistic drama but it is also an “opera buffa” or comic opera, and the plot, ending in Don Giovanni being dragged to hell by the statue of a man he killed, has a supernatural element.
Different productions place different emphases on these aspects of drama, comedy and the supernatural, but the current ROH production, which was first seen in 2014, makes a more serious effort to blend them all together. The result is a psychosexual comic fantasy drama and this revival, directed by Jack Furness, is more convincing than its previous outings.
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The first reason for that is the excellent cast. Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott holds the whole thing together perfectly in the title role. His Don Giovanni is totally convincing as the serial seducer, who shows no remorse for the troubles and misery he causes. His philosophy is summed up in the line he gives in reply to the suggestion by his manservant Leporello (well played by Italian bass Roberto Tagliavini) that the Don should give up his wiocked ways and be faithful to one woman.
“Just one?” Giovanni asks in astonishment. “But that would be unfair to all the others.”
The women he leaves in varying degrees of distraughtness all play their parts well, particularly Swedish soprano Malin Byström as Donna Anna whom this production portrays at least in part as a willing and devious accomplice to Don Giovanni's amorousness. Greek soprano Myrto Papatanasiu gave a good account of herself as a late replacement in the role of Donna Elvira, who remorselessly pursues Giovanni, unsure whether she wants to punish him for ditching her or is still in love with him.
The trio of the Don's conquests is completed by young British soprano Louise Alder who is delightful in the role of the innocent Zerlina who comes close to being seduced away from her new husband on their wedding day.
Three other members of the cast deserve praise for bringing unusual weight to some smaller parts: Daniel Behle (as Don Ottavio, Donna Anna's fiancé) and Leon Košavić(as Zerlina's husband, Masetto) are both convincing in their strong singing as well as good acting, while the always reliable Brindley Sherratt brings great authority to the role of the Commendatore, particularly when he returns after his murder to accept Giovanni's invitation to dinner.
I found the ghostly figures wandering across the stage in this production less obtrusive than in earlier versions and more in keeping with the Commendatore's posthumous appearance, but was unconvinced by the ending, in which all goes black and Don Giovanni is left alone and womanless on stage (clearly a fate worse than death for him) instead of being dragged into the flames of hell.
Somehow Mozart's finale, in which the offstage chorus joyfully sing of the wages of sin, seems wrong in this setting.
Tickets: www.roh.org.uk or 020 7304 4000 (various dates until October 10)
