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Don Giovanni |
Don Giovanni. Repent, while there is still time!
PREVIEW: DON GIOVANNI
Royal Opera House
THE Royal Opera’s 2008/09 Season opens with Francesca Zambello’s 2002 production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which returns to Covent Garden for its third revival.
Don Giovanni is something of a rake, a man with a less than admirable track record with the ladies, as it were.
The action in the opera centres on the repercussions of three failed conquests – with Donna Elvira, who he abandons but who still follows him; with Donna Anna, who he unsuccessfully attempts to rape and whose father, the Commandant, he kills while escaping; and with Zerlina, who he tries to lure away from her fiancé.
With the seeds of heartbreak and chaos thus sown, all three wronged parties swear vengeance on Giovanni and his servant, Leporello.
Elvira alone sees hope of saving Giovanni, and seeks a reconciliation in the hope that her wayward lover can mend his ways.
But this is no happy-ending, all’s well tale of redemption. Giovanni mocks Elvira for her naïvety and ignores her petitions for him to mend his way of life.
And, the opera being set in the days before Jeremy Kyle could sort everything out and talk negligent men out of their wicked ways with a quip and a wink, it is down to the statue of the Commandant to take on the foul reprobate.
The Commandant arrives, announced by a clap of thunder no less, and despite a final opportunity to repent, the scurrilous Giovanni remains stubbornly obstinate and is so doomed by the statue to an eternity burning in hell.
“Sorry”, it seems, really is the hardest word.
British baritone Simon Keenlyside shares the title role with Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien.
Keenlyside previously sang Giovanni at Covent Garden in 2002, when the production was first performed. He has also sung the role in Vienna, Zurich, Barcelona and Tokyo.
The role of Leporello is shared between American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen and Italian bass-baritone Lorenzo Regazzo.
Ketelsen sang Leporello at the Royal Opera House in 2007 and has also performed the role for Los Angeles Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Kentucky Opera, Opera Pacific and Madison Opera.
Designs are by Maria Björnson with lighting by Paul Pyant and choreography by Stephen Mear.
Conducting honours are shared between Mozart authority Sir Charles Mackerras and music director Antonio Pappano, who conduct two stellar casts.
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