Don Giovanni

Synopsis

Written shortly after The Marriage of Figaro. Based on the famous legend of Don Juan the master seducer from whom no woman can be considered safe. Don Giovanni pursues, seduces, rapes and murders and in the climax is pulled to hell by a stone statue of one of his victims come to life - he remains unrepentant. His servant Leporello witnesses all his masters wrongs. There is also a rarely performed opera of the same name (and story) by Giuseppe Gazzaniga which was first performed in 1786, eight months before Mozart's version.

Our Review:

8 November 2012

When Don Giovanni's servant, Leporello sings of a thousand disturbing thoughts, I couldn't help thinking that director, Alessandro Talevi had visualised this concept more than any words could explain. His interpretation of Mozart's tale of the womanising Giovanni for Opera North is both sinister and surreal - magnifying the lust, greed and power that drives the story. 

William Dazeley, plays the lead as an undoubted villain throughout. He is clearly psychopathic, and save for his singing, it's hard to see why any woman would fall for him. Yet, fall for him they do, whatever era he finds himself in, be it Victorian, 1950s, 1980s or now. Giovanni’s power over women is timeless, and Talevi has woven in some extra magic, allowing him to turn the peasants into pigs and open doors with the wave of his cane.

Giovanni plays the other characters like puppets, emphasised in a series of quirky Punch and Judy style scenes. Yet, Giovanni is not the only one who isn...

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