Don Giovanni review

Thomas Allen’s robustly dark production of Don Giovanni for Scottish Opera, revived nine years after its original outing in 2013, has weathered the intervening years – and the emergence of the #MeToo movement – well. 

Simon Higlett’s classical Venetian set, in dark blues and shadows, frames each scene in a painterly tableaux, allowing the muted colours of the costumes to pop and emphasising the dark nature of the opera’s anti-hero.

Allen confronts the opera’s inherent problem head-on: that it appears to celebrate a man who has no understanding of the meaning of consent – notwithstanding its pious addendum about getting what you deserve.

There is little doubt here, for all of Roland Wood’s beautifully honey-tongued guile in the title role that, behind Wood’s bombast and strutting, the only person celebrating Giovanni is the Don himself.

Thanks to high-profile cases such as that of Ghislaine Maxwell, we understand more about the nature of procurement and the facilitation of men who prey on women. Zachary Altman’s helplessly gesturing and desperately obsequious servant Leporello might be Giovanni’s procurer and facilitator – and more than a little involved in the death of the Commendatore (a stoic Keel Watson) as he appears to push him back on to Giovanni’s advancing blade – but there is little love here, although he might wish himself in his master’s place.

All the female leads have agency. Even love-struck Donna Elvira, who cannot help but return to the man who loved and spurned her, is making a deliberate choice to do so in Kitty Whately’s clear portrayal of a strong-willed woman. Hye-Youn Lee is equally magnificent as Donna Anna, the Commendatore’s daughter whose honour he died protecting. She clearly controls her long – and extending – engagement to Don Ottavio, although Pablo Bemsch does manage to give him some kind of backbone in the final scenes.

Scottish Opera emerging artist Lea Shaw is particularly strong as the peasant Zerlina, whose marriage to Emyr Wyn Jones’ borderline sadistic Masetto is interrupted when Giovanni seduces her, bribing Masetto and the wedding guests with a party back at his opulent palace. Shaw brings a powerful and clear voice to her understanding of the role, as a woman who knows how to manipulate her man to get what she wants.

Musically, it seems to flash by, making its 190 minutes feel brief. Stuart Stratford’s conducting adds both drive and lightness. The vocal performances on stage are uniformly strong, bringing out the drama and comedy of the piece, soaring in the arias and giving more robust understanding to the duets and a delicate feel to the sextets. 

This is a complex and nuanced production that brings a contemporary understanding to the whole opera.