It is so much better when Don Giovanni looks the right side of forty and half-ways decent-looking, so much more believable. As is the case with Nicholas Lester in English Touring Opera’s production of Mozart’s eponymous opera. He snaps his braces, strides across the stage and, with a voice like chocolate, sings of loving and leaving ‘em. His Act 2 serenade is gorgeously cheesy.

His servant Leporello is (we suspect) growing a tad old for that sort of thing, and Matthew Stiff is, by turns, appalled by and admiring of his master’s actions. From the start, standing guard while the Don has his way with Donna Anna, Leporello’s growing disenchantment with the lifestyle is clear. Yet Stiff relishes cataloguing the Don’s conquests and his affection is genuine.

It helps that it is sung in English, in Jeremy Sams’ witty translation. It is, after all, described on the score as a dramma giocosa, and in this production the fun does come through.

Anna Fleishle’s costumes belong in the early 1900s – one could imagine either of the ladies on their way to a suffragette meeting. Director Lloyd Wood has set this production amongst those who lived and worked in the underground tunnels of Vienna. So there is the curved space, at the junction of a number of tunnels, a metal stair to the upper level, and very little light.

Gillian Ramm makes Donna Anna’s vengeance believable. As her fiancé, Don Ottavio, Robin Lyn Evans is indignant for her. As much as they impress individually, their duets work particularly well.
Ania Jeruc is a fervent Elvira, clearly conflicted about Don Giovanni, until it is too late, and she appreciates her loss. In the ensembles with Ramm and Evans, the fine singing accentuates their varied emotions.
Meanwhile, Giovanni has ‘moved on’ – to Zerlina, where he meets his match. Lucy Hall is a lively soubrette, way more mature and street-wise than her Masetto, played with the right degree of inarticulate jealousy and infatuation by Bradley Travis. Her voice is light and bright, in contrast to the richer tones of Anna and Elvira, and suits her less complicated approach.

The trio of dying Commendatore, (Timothy Dawkins), Giovanni and Leporello, early in Act 1, is poignant. The Commendatore’s return at the end – after Giovanni has been scoffing oysters and tormenting the hungry Leporello – is almost matter-of-fact, despite Leporello/Stiff’s evident terror.  This Don is not dragged down into a fiery pit – a grating may spout flames, but his body is carried off by the chorus into the network of tunnels.

The final ensemble, drawing the moral, highlights how well-balanced this cast is, while the orchestra, conducted by Michael Rosewell, produced a rich, full sound and the balance between stage and pit was well-nigh perfect.