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Elements of Panto
Mozart's 'Don Giovanni'
entertains MIKE WHEELER
With its elements of panto, Punch and Judy and music-hall, Alessandro Talevi's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni (Opera North, Theatre Royal, Nottingham, UK, 21 November 2012) positively revelled in its own theatricality, underlined by the walls of Madeleine's Boyd's set decorated with ballet dancers and tight-rope walkers from paintings by Degas. With the cast rising gamely to the challenge, the result emphasised the opera's comedy at some expense to its serious side. Costumes ranged from Victorian to the 1950s, with Donna Elvira's ambivalence nicely suggested by her moving between the two.
William Dazeley's Giovanni and Matthew Hargreaves' Leporello were a sublimely polished double-act, swinging their canes in sync and mirroring each other's poses...
Copyright © 9 December 2012
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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