Don Giovanni, Opera North/Grand Theatre, Leeds, review

Opera North's production of Don Giovanni in Leeds offers drama and depth hidden by smoke and mirrors, writes Rupert Christiansen.

Lacks charisma: William Dazeley as Don Giovanni.
Lacks charisma: William Dazeley as Don Giovanni. Credit: Photo: Robert Workman

Is there any opera that resists interpretation more slippily than Mozart’s Don Giovanni? A fable without an unambiguous hero or villain, lurching from low farce to high drama, it seems to mean anything you like.

Alessandro Talevi is an ambitious young director undaunted by the challenge, and his new production for Opera North doesn’t evade or simplify the possibilities. But like so many before him, Talevi does end up tripping over his own ingeniously tied shoelaces.

Designed by Madeleine Boyd, the staging is set in both the 1890s and 1950s. Don Giovanni and Leporello function like a music-hall double act (Burlington Bertie and Champagne Charlie?) with the Don apparently in intermittent possession of mesmeric powers. Anna and Ottavio sport black bombazine and clerical frock-coat, Zerlina and Masetto are rock-and-rollers, while Elvira – sometimes in bridal white, sometimes in Vivienne Westwood punk – doesn’t know which way to turn.

The mix reminds me of some clever Victorian pastiche novel about Jack the Ripper, and it gives Talevi licence to roam, with frequent recourse to the imagery of puppet shows and string-pulling. But too much is merely random or sophomoric showing-off: why, for instance, does Ottavio snaffle up the Commendatore’s fob-watch? And does “Batti, batti” need to be illustrated by full sexual congress?

Occasionally, Talevi strikes gold – parading the vengeful ghosts of Don Giovanni’s conquests as the Commendatore’s minions is a brilliant coup de théâtre – but ultimately it’s all smoke and mirrors: there’s no focus to the drama, no depth to the characters, just a lively show winging it on some bright ideas. Mozart’s fault to a degree?

Musically, there are no major complaints. William Dazeley sings with assurance in the title-role but doesn’t radiate dangerous sexual charisma.

Elizabeth Atherton and Meeta Raval attack Elvira’s and Anna’s arias with terrific gusto, Claire Wild is a delightfully perky little sparrow of a Zerlina and Alastair Miles reveals unexpected comic talent as a lugubrious Leporello. Tobias Ringborg conducts an appropriately energised account of the score.

I think Talevi is grasping opportunistically at straws: he needs to calm down and learn to do more with less. However, the younger elements of the first-night audience clearly relished the breezy sensationalism of his concept and applauded the undeniable bravado of its execution without reservations.

Until Nov 24. Tickets: 0844 848 2727.