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Don Giovanni

Published Tuesday 9 September 2008 at 19:10 by David Gutman

Introduced on stage by chief executive Tony Hall, this opening night of the 2008/9 season was a first for the audience-widening initiative sponsored by Helen Hamlyn and spearheaded in unlikely partnership with The Sun newspaper.

Don Giovanni makes an astute choice for the venture. Notwithstanding some obtuse designs by Maria Bjornson, including a doll-like madonna and a giant admonitory finger, Francesca Zambello’s production, first seen in 2002, is a sensual crowd-pleaser. With subtler intimacies left to fend for themselves, the denouement at least is spectacular, the flames of hell noisily engulfing what looks to be the bath house of a Roman villa. Earlier scenes are set in and around a variably positioned curved structure upon which the main protagonist clambers over athletically.

Simon Keenlyside is back in the role, a great draw not least for the

patrons of 100-plus cinemas taking a live relay. Kyle Ketelsen’s experienced Leporello is scarcely less fine and young Robert Gleadow makes an unusually virile Masetto in a notable role debut for him. Eric Halfvarson is the solid Commendatore.

Only the traditionally Italian voice and bearing of the Don Ottavio, Mexican tenor Ramon Vargas, doesn’t quite fit. The costumes, unlike the sets, are vaguely in period, the wigs unflattering.

Marina Poplavskaya reprises her Donna Anna, a portrayal of restraint and regal bearing, well sung despite a throat infection. In a further pair of notable role debuts, Miah Persson offers considerable vocal charm and natural acting as a class-conscious Zerlina, while Joyce DiDonato adjusts her honeyed bel canto mezzo to project the desperation of a Donna Elvira costumed to resemble Miss Havisham.

In the pit we are in experienced hands. Sparing with vibrato and eschewing refinement for refinement’s sake, Mackerras can seem determined to outpace his singers, yet he sanctions an unusually gentle and seductive La ci darem la mano - there’s always humanity as well as buoyancy in his approach.

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