Strange how such a dark morality tale, full of foreboding and cynicism, should have been regarded, by Mozart at least, as a comic opera.
Certainly there are comic moments, wittily wry observations on the relationships between the sexes and occasional barbs at the conventions of 18th-century Europe, but the overwhelming tone, set from the first clanging D-minor chord of the overture, is one of impending tragedy as the gates of hell grind open for our unwitting and unrepentant libertine of Seville, Don Giovanni, or Don Juan as he was once better known.
That this unlikely mixture works so effectively is a tribute to Mozart’s inventiveness nearly 227 years ago and Opera Australia’s inspired casting for this fresh revival under Scottish director Sir David McVicar.
That this unlikely mixture works so effectively is a tribute to Mozart’s inventiveness nearly 227 years ago and Opera Australia’s inspired casting for this fresh revival under Scottish director Sir David McVicar.
And what a treat this was. Teddy Tahu Rhodes at his swaggering best, that awesomely deep baritone booming out one minute then caressingly restrained the next.
He has played this role before, of course, but not with the same assurance or with quite the degree of arrogant, damn-the-consequences disdain that the Don truly demands. The performer turns 48 next month and is the perfect age for the part.
The first hint of humour comes from Leporello, the Don’s morally ambiguous servant, declaiming against his master’s relentless assault on yet another girl’s virtue while envying him the ease with which his objectives are obtained.
This culminates in the familiar catalogue aria, in which Leporello informs one of the Don’s abandoned lovers, Donna Elvira, of his master’s hundreds of conquests.
Bass Shane Lowrencev obviously revelled in the role, with all its musical nuances and challenges. Not bad for a singer whose self-confessed favourites include U2, The Cure and Radiohead.
As Elvira, the ever-likable Nicole Car used her honeyed, clear soprano to good effect, as she did in Melbourne in 2009 when she made her debut as Donna Anna, one of Don Giovanni’s other conquests.
Car started her career singing jazz but was so struck by a performance of Verdi’s Tosca that she decided to switch to classical opera. Jazz’s loss is our gain.
Taryn Fiebig also added lustre to the cast as Zerlina, one of the Don’s other fancies, particularly in Act II when she consoled her betrothed, the hapless and jealous peasant Masetto, demonstrating artfully even as she invited him to beat her that she could wind him around her little finger.
We don’t see enough of this talented soprano with the versatile voice.
Russian-born Elvira Fatykhova, as the vengeful Donna Anna, was a picture of restraint as she negotiated rapid coloratura passages with precision and a voice that’s warm and smooth, without a hint of harshness, as she pursued the Don for murdering her father, the Commendatore.
The stirring bass of Jud Arthur, a New Zealander like Tahu Rhodes, added realism to the climactic scene in which the statue of the Commendatore comes to life to try to persuade the unrepentant Don to mend his ways.
But it’s the Furies, writhing figures from hell, who provided the highlight, dragging the reluctant and finally screaming Don down to the fires below.
The clever set, by Robert Jones, gave the usually cramped opera stage at least the illusion of space, extending into the distance, with vaulted chambers on either side in which the main players could lurk among piles of skulls and other human remains. Overhead, a huge ramp could be raised and lowered to provide a staircase to levels barely glimpsed above. Stone walls would seemingly glide into place from the sides and likewise huge columns would descend and rise as and when such fripperies were needed.
As befitting the mood, the lighting was dark, perhaps too dark; I for one like to see the singers’ faces clearly.
Conductor Jonathan Darlington, almost as extravagantly bouffant as Mozart himself even without need of a periwig, demonstrated a firm hand with an immaculate sense of timing.
On a raised part of the orchestra pit, Siro Battaglin at the fortepiano provided a distinctive edge to the music, with the instrument’s softer tone and reduced sustain.
There were a few minor errors on opening night: in the orchestra pit, someone dropped something on two occasions, on stage there were some minor timing lapses and at the start of Act II the surtitles disappeared for five minutes or so before hesitantly reappearing — to churlish cheers from some of the audience during one of the more sensitive arias on stage — and the smaller surtitles on screens near the front exits disappeared altogether for the rest of the performance but these gaffes will all no doubt be gone by the time the performance gets into swing again.
The standout performance belongs to Tahu Rhodes. The bad boy of opera has really come good.
