Reviews
DON GIOVANNI

Don Giovanni springs away on sprightly stage

Review by Peter J Casey
The Canberra Times, Friday March 31 2006

Don Giovanni , Co-Opera with the combined Grammar Schools' Motet Choir, at Canberra Girls Grammar School , March 28-29

Actors call it ‘playing the end of the scene', and productions or Mozart's Don Giovanni frequently fall into the trap. Dark and foreboding, they make the roguish hero's doom inevitable from the first bars. No danger of that in this cartoonish and sprightly version directed by Tessa Bremner and presented by Co-Opera.

Presented in English, it is cheerfully anachronistic and self-referential, but only the staunchest fuddy duddy could fail to enjoy its pace and verve.

The piece is whisked along by James Edwards as a Puckish Argumento, a helpful sprite who explains and comments in couplets upon the action, and sometimes intervenes in the plots less believable moments. ‘D'uh!' he cries in Donna Anna's ear when she fails to recognise the Don as the man who attacked her earlier that day.

The other performers present a happy assortment of acting styles, from Jillian Chatterton's Donna Elvira, gesticulating like a silent movie heroine, to Phoenicia Johnson and Pelham Andrews' earthly peasants Zerlina and Masetto. Jeremy Tatchell is dry and vocally agile as the Don's servant Leporello, and deserves particular credit for making fresh the jokes in the famous Catalogue aria. Vanessa West's bell-toned soprano does much to lessen the foolishness of Donna Anna.

James Homann as the Don, is no modern pretty boy but a shameless Beau Brummel, enjoying every one of the seven deadly sins, and repentant only at the last instant. He shifts to Italian as he begins to woo the bountiful Zerlina, and wins her over.

The music is superb – from pianist Julie Sargeant, musical director Brian Chatterton and choral assistance by students from the combined Grammar schools. Louise Dunn's costumes are delicious.

By removing the orchestra, reducing props, and leaving the stage free of extraneous peasants and wedding guests, Bremner's staging highlights Mozart the musical dramatist. It makes for a whole evening of entertainment, not just three or four good arias with an eternity in between

Don Giovanni

27/mar/06

Co*opera
Bird in Hand Winery

This is a Don Giovanni in which the danger of damnation has been replaced with the possibility of having a roaring good time.

Tessa Bremner's gaudy production, all high hats and flounces, takes the story back to its roots in the market place, with broad humour and lots of energy. Purists will hate it.

Sung generally in a witty English translation, some of the best known arias are in Italian. Confusing? Not at all.

Musically it's not quite together yet at the start of its lengthy tour interstate, although Brian Chatterton, with a chamber ensemble at his command, keeps the action flowing with skill.

Puckish James Edwards links the scenes and comments on the action with witty rhyming couplets. He's a directorial intervention, removing the need for lengthy passages of sung dialogue. In fact all the characters speak at times, and there are moments when its like Gilbert and Sullivan with sexual references or Sondheim with classical melodies. James Homann's baby-faced Don is patchily sung but he pulls out all the stops in the final scene, and Ernest Ens as Ottavio – no natural Mozart tenor – pulls his big voice back to blend neatly in the complex ensembles.

The best all round singing comes from Jeremy Tatchell's excellently conceived Leporello, and Pelham Andrews confidently doubling the Commendatore and the peasant Masetto.

The three female victims of the Don's intentions are finely contrasted.

Brunette Phoenicia Johnson is a knowing Zerlina, blonde Jillian Chatterton an Elvira bordering on nervous breakdown and red-headed Vanessa West a real prima donna of a Donna Anna.

– Ewart Shaw

Back