'Don Giovanni' review — this sumptuous production is an artistic and technical triumph

Read our review of Mozart's Don Giovanni, starring Gordon Bintner, now in performances at the Royal Opera House to 15 October.

Don Giovanni, Mozart’s darkest opera about the notorious seducer and murderer, features an uneasy blend of comedy and tragedy, with numerous elements that could be considered problematic these days. But Kasper Holten’s sumptuous production, first performed in 2014 (this revival is helmed by Greg Eldridge), is a bag of tricks that offers non-stop visual surprises and a decent sprinkling of revisionism, accompanied by all the fine musical values one would expect from the Royal Opera under conductor Stefano Montanari’s silky music direction.

Es Devlin’s ingenious set design is a grand but crumbling mansion that serves as a haunted house (likely a metaphor for Don Giovanni’s psyche) with the names of the Don's hundreds of conquests scrawled over it, and it is constantly opening up to reveal a network of staircases and hidden panels (the sequence in which it starts spinning and flashing is pure sensory overload). The psychedelic qualities of Luke Halls’s video design and Bruno Poet’s lighting contribute to an artistic and technical triumph that wouldn’t be out of place at a catwalk show.

The commitment to the world of high fashion can also be seen in the work of costume designer Anja Vang Kragh, who began her career working for Dior and Stella McCartney, and who provides a parade of distressed haute couture outfits for the masque scene and keeps the leads looking sharp. The whole thing is supremely classy to look at.

The revival is led by Canadian bass-baritone Gordon Bintner, who isn’t quite the dark, brooding archetype and instead brings a sneering Bullingdon Club-esque arrogance to the role that’s sadly all too recognisable. His singing is smooth and his physicality assured. He’s accompanied by Roberto Tagliavini, who is nicely sardonic as Leporello, the Don’s servant and lookout who wants a bit of the action himself.

Holten’s production emphasises the strength of the women too, who aren’t just passive victims succumbing to Don Giovanni's alpha male charms. As the seemingly delicate peasant bride Zerlina, Giulia Semenzato has real sparkle and shows plenty of agency – it’s clear she has her fiancé Masetto (Dingle Yandell) wrapped around her little finger. Rachel Willis-Sørensen is a large-voiced Donna Anna (in this version, she’s complicit in the initial seduction that sends the chain of events in motion), who similarly dominates her intended Don Ottavio (Bogdan Volkov).

Best of all is the hugely charismatic Aigul Akhmetshina in her role debut as the impassioned Donna Elvira, who is clear-sighted about the Don yet is still infatuated with him. She is a match for him in force of character – if he could only settle down, they would be ideally suited.

It’s lengthy evening but it doesn’t drag. Like an encounter with the notorious title character, it’s a production that will linger in the memory.

Don Giovanni is at the Royal Opera House to 15 October. Book Don Giovanni tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Don Giovanni (Photos by Mihaela Bodlovic)