Don Giovanni

Wellington Opera

Saturday 17 April 2021, Opera House, Wellington

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni (1787)
Lorenzo Da Ponte: Libretto

Christian Thurston – Don Giovanni
James Ioelu – Leporello
Amanda Atlas – Donna Elvira
Amelia Berry – Donna Anna
Oliver Sewell – Don Ottavio
Natasha Wilson – Zerlina
Joel Amosa – Masetto
Paul Whelan – Commendatore

Sara Brodie – director
Matthew Ross – conductor

Wellington Opera Chorus
Orchestra Wellington
Justine Cormack – concertmaster
Mark Dorrell – répétiteur

Matthew Kereama – associate director
Meg Rollandi – production designer
Jo Kilgour – lighting designer
Khrissie Rhodes – head of wardrobe & assistant costume designer
Weta Workshop – puppet creation
Lisa Maule – stage manager
Jim & Chistine Pearce – surtitles

All photo credits: Stephen A’Court for Wellington Opera’s performance of Don Giovanni.

A personal opinion from Stephen Gibbs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

tldr: the short story

This Don Giovanni was outstanding.
It humbled me: the richness of talent that New Zealand / Aotearoa possesses in all areas.
The music was excellently performed by the orchestra and the singers.
The lead singers / actors were superb and well cast.

The star was Oliver Sewell as Don Ottavio – a beautiful voice.
The highlight of the opera was undoubtedly the direction from Sara Brodie – creative, innovative, and subtle.
And the ultimate demise of Don Giovanni will live with me for a long time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The long story:

In my review / opinion, if I criticise ANYTHING you have to know that this Don Giovanni was, truly, outstanding.
It humbled me: the richness of talent that New Zealand / Aotearoa possesses in all areas. The music was excellently performed by the orchestra and the singers. The direction was sublime – more about later. Lighting, costumes, design – given the director’s undoubted influence – were marvelous.

Mozart’s compositions can be an ‘iceberg. On the surface is it so classically proportioned, delicately crystaline, candidly courteous – the dramatic moments are always tempered with an apologetic context. Underneath there is so much detail, musical definition, and exacting precision. Many performers have a ‘Titanic’ moment with Mozart’s music.

So – when the orchestra began the opening chords of the overture, I was captivated by the energy, the robustness and the precision of their playing. It was a Classical Orchestra, almost a chamber orchestra, but they were superbly balanced.
Then, the director stepped in.

When the tempo picked up, the curtain rose and we were treated to a mime show of Don Giovanni invading Donna Anna house. Leporello affixed a ladder to Donna’s bedroom window. The curtain went down, to shield the delicate sensibilities of the audience to what presumably was going on in Donna Anna’s house. Obviously, this was not an ordinary version of the opera!
The overture proceeded at a cracking pace. Then, the singing commenced….

Photo credit: Stephen A’Court for Wellington Opera’s Don Giovanni.

Photo credit: Stephen A’Court for Wellington Opera’s Don Giovanni.

The principal singers / actors were superb and well cast. Their voices matched their roles perfectly:
Christian Thurston [Don Giovanni] velvety and rounded tone was appealing and, well, seductive;
James Ioelu [Leporello] had a rapid vibrato and range of dynamics that matched his flip-flop jester’s and reactionary role;
The range of Amelia Berry [Donna Anna] incendiary tone had the passion and furiousness that matched her sorrow (and her duplicity);
Amanda Atlas [Donna Elvira] had a range of dynamics and tone that matched her characters ambivalence;
Joel Amosa [Masetto] voice had a richness and solidity to match his earthy and grounded character;
and Natasha Wilson [Zerlina] had a resonant warmth and a passionate tone that matched her feisty but easily-led character.
Paul Whelan [Commendatore] has a physical presence and a stentorian voice to match.

All of the ensemble work: the duets, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets – were impressive. Masetto and Zerlina had brilliant voices and their arias were outstanding. But the voice that impressed me most was Oliver Sewell [Don Ottavio]. His voice was beautiful – well rounded, covered, accurate in intonation, diction, dynamics. His breath control was phenomenal and it seemed effortless. His solo arias were a highlight.

I was interested how the voices responded to the orchestra. In the recitatives, there was not a problem at all. When the aria – solo, duet, trio, quartet… began properly and the orchestra was tutti, the voices responded differently. For example, Christian maintained his tone consistently, but consequently, he could be drowned out, especially when he was upstage. Amelia had no such problem when the orchestra was in full flight. Her range and her volume was awesome, but sometimes it was overcompensating and her intonation suffered. Oliver matched the orchestra’s volume perfectly – softer in his profound and ardent moments, full voice in his passionate outbursts.

Christian Thurston [Don Giovanni] Photo: Stephen A’Court for Wellington Opera

Amelia Berry [Donna Anna] Photo: Stephen A’Court for Wellington Opera

Oliver Sewell [Don Ottavio] Photo: Stephen A’Court for Wellington Opera

The chorus had not much to do, singing-wise, but they supported the leads magnificently, always in character. Some times their role was quite demanding – stock still, in some ungainly poses, as statues at the cemetery for example!

The orchestra was conducted by Matthew Ross. He did a fine job, with crisp tempos and finely crafted phrasing. There were a few wobbles in intonation and tone in the second act, but the orchestra acquitted itself well. The violins, violas, clarinets, oboe and Mark Dorrell’s fake-harpsichord playing were particularly impressive. And I see, Matthew has another ‘bow’ to his string playing – mandolin for Giovanni’s serenade aria.

The music and the musical performances were marvellous, but ultimately the highlight of the opera was Sara Brodie‘s direction.

I have seen her work – regrettably not so much as her profile on the programme notes attests. I have seen her Handel’s Semele, Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), and Hohepa. She was directing Christian Thurston in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Christian and Oliver in Verdi’s Il corsaro in Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music productions. As a choreographer she knows the music well, and she knows where events or movements should be in the music: for example, the opening mime scene in the overture when the music got busy, or when Giovanni seduces Zerlina at the dramatic section of the music.

And she knows appropriate humour. Not banana-skin humour, not smutty or scatological humour but honest dead-pan humour. For example, when Leporello wants to quit his obnoxious job he creeps under the curtain and Don Giovanni follows him. Literally, underhanded. Or when Don Giovanni does a ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, talking to Donna Elvira and Leporello, dressed in Giovanni’s clothes has to gesture meaningfully at the window to the fake paramour.

So…these are my assumptions!
I suspect that the budget for this opera was not large, and it required compromise. And I assume, that Sara saw it an opportunity to be innovative and creative in her decisions.

With a whole opera stage to set, dispense with plywood and scaffolding by using multiple veils dripping from the ceiling. The houses can be only facades that run around castors. Costuming? We could have mediocre costumes for the whole cast OR we can make a point and richly clothe the patricians (the Don and Donnas). The plebeians and peasants are dressed with ordinary, everyday, 21th century clothes.

So, Donna Elvira has an stunning ruby-red gown with an enormous train, but Leporello has a black woollen beanie and sand shoes. Don Ottavio has an amazing tailored suit and Masetto has a t-shirt and workbooks. Donna Anna has a sequinned black mourning gown but Zerlina has a bush shirt over a white crop top. When the wedding party at Don Giovanni’s mansion begin, the chorus dress up in lavish clothes, but they are fancy dress, not elegant or appropriate. There is a lesson to be learnt here – something about a sow’s ear? Or the trappings of money and privilege are superficial and don’t equate to virtue?

Donna Elvira. Photo credit: Stephen A’Court for Wellington Opera

Masetto, Zerlina and the chorus. Photo credit: Stephen A’Court for Wellington Opera.

Now, we have an anachronism. So…why not play it out? Rather than 18th century boxes or tables or chairs, why not use the theatre boxes with castors or fold-up chairs? Why not have flashlights rather than lanterns?

Now…the audience has suspended their disbelief entirely, so why not use the stage crew, complete with headphones and walkie-talkies, to move things around or place or pick up things that are not useful anymore? And why not drop things out of the sky like a wedding gown or a sword [of Damocles?]. Why only a black-book list for Don Giovanni’s conquest? Why not have a list as big as his amorality! [See above!]

And – the pièce de résistance, when the audience is so invested in the fantasy, why not have a supernatural ghostly apparition with gargantuan proportions ….. [I will not spoil that end if you have not seen this version of the opera before. But look at the named credits at the beginning of this article – wink, wink.]

The setting at the end was subtly important too, I think. The stage was cleared – even the wings with their pulleys and lights and computers and the back wall were revealed. The theatre entrails. It was a barren space, not pretty, not magical as a theatre should [?] be. It was as if you are facing death – you know you can’t take anything with you. The last ensemble delivers the moral of the opera – “Such is the end of the evildoer: the death of a sinner always reflects his life” (“Questo è il fin di chi fa mal, e de’ perfidi la morte alla vita è sempre ugual”). All will be revealed.

Creative, innovative, fun but subtly thoughtful. Stunning direction, beautiful music and musicianship: an opera performance that will be in my memory for a long time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[I didn’t get some of the symbols or objects though. Why was the descending sword there? And what was the meaning of the ‘NOPE’ t-shirt? Was it a reaction to the 18th Century attitude that underlies the opera – the subjugation of women as sex objects; the ‘Beat me!’ lyric, even as a ‘joke’. A ‘#MeToo’ message? NOPE mans ‘NO’. I see that Donna Elvira and Zerlina were quite prepared to stab Giovanni with a sword.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~