Don Giovanni
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sydney Opera House
in repertory until 10 September
LF doesn't usually cover opera , but this new production by German-born Australian Elke Neidhardt is something a bit special, not least for the appearance, in the title role, of Hungarian Gabor Bretz, fresh from appearances in Budapest, Salzburg and La Scala, Milan. Neidhardt has created a sort of swaggering Nick Cave meets white-shoe-brigade figure, someone we all know really, and has set the action (originally conceived as Sevilla, Spain) in a contemporary-ish no man's land, with minimal sets.
All the better to focus on the superb bass and bass-baritone singing in Mozart's 'heaviest' opera. For those who don't know the story or follow Italian libretto, don't worry, we all know it - he's Don Juan, in the last years of his life, sexual powers waning in direct proportion to his bragadaccio. Retribution is coming, though, and takes the form of the murdered 'Commendatore', usually manifesting as a stone statue come to life, but here as a menacing abstract light-show of florescent tubes. Even better than Bretz is Joshua Bloom as his sidekick Leporello, and the girls are pretty goo too: Rachelle Durkin was a good if sometimes too-strident Donna Anna, and Catherine Carby is Donna Elvira, who manifests (visually) as a cross between Cindy Lauper and Vicky Pollard.
The World Premiere was in Prague in October 1787, 2 years before the 'world changed forever' (the first time) with the French revolution. It's as if Mozart knew that the excesses of the ruling class could not continue. As always, there's an iron fist in the velvet glove of the music. Après nous, la déluge?
Finally, following a recent post about American director Peter Sellars' version of Tristan and Isolde, with videos by Bill Viola, there's grainy video below of Sellars' famous 1990 interpretation of 'The Don', set in Spanish Harlem, and featuring the sensational identical twins Herbert and Eugene Perry as Don Giovanni and Leporello. The scene is the final one, and the Commendatore is a somewhat more literal giant human figure.
Above: The Perry twins in the final scene of Peter Sellars' Don Giovanni, 1990, with French subtitles.
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