Don Giovanni

Director Lindy Hume’s feminist reinterpretation of Mozart’s masterpiece for the #Me Too era works brilliantly. Darkly austere in its setting, piercingly clever in its use of light, and a rock-star performance of the title character, the production ticks all the right boxes.

Seen through the female prism of today, the licentious and predatory behaviour of Don Giovanni offers many parallels in modern society and it is this element that registers strongly in Hume’s concept. A womaniser and rake with insatiable appetites, he could be seen as one of the great monsters in the operatic canon, but barahunk Duncan Rock, making his professional Australian debut, gives him humanity. Yes, he’s cruel and seductively dangerous, but there’s an appealing larrikin edge to his performance. The voice is rich and honeyed and especially beautiful with his perfectly audible pianissimo of “Deh vieni alla finestra,” one of the highlights. Rock and Shaun Brown as Leporello worked well together, their camaraderie obvious and Brown excelled with his catalogue aria.

Hayley Sugars, looking truly resplendent in some elegant Edwardian gowns by Anna Cordingley, brought a fiery presence to Donna Elvira, plus a multitude of laughs, whilst Eva Kong’s Donna Anna upped the vocal stakes with some gorgeous singing which quite rightly won the most applause at curtain. Katie Stenzel was a sexy and bewitching Zerlina with a voice to match, Samuel Piper painted Masetto with a ton of anguish, while Andrew Collis’s booming-bass brought an ethereal menace in his brief appearances as The Commendatore which made us wish there were more to the role.

Although Hume re-set the opera in Edwardian times, there was nothing particularly Edwardian about Cordingley’s sets except for the dark brooding feeling evoked, with the action played out on a steeply raked stage with an occasional upholstered chair and a single chandelier.

Jillianne Stoll was an unobtrusive but exacting presence with her harpsichord continuo stage right, whilst Johannes Fritzch’s baton worked magic in the pit. But Hume’s piece de resistance was the provocative finale when she filled the stage with over sixty naked or near-naked female Avenging Furies as Don Giovanni descends into hell. As piece of coup de theatre it was a masterstroke and undeniably put her stamp on this richly layered and invigorating reinterpretation.

Peter Pinne