Silly Little Country

Don Giovanni in London

Two years ago London, Ontario cultural life was improved enormously when Orchestra London decided to find a way to produce a major opera production each year and perform it at the Grand Theatre, a lovely small theatre in London.
The first production was Tosca, which we saw and loved, especially the intimacy that came from being so close to the orchestra and stage.
Schedules did not allow us to make last year's "Rigoletto". But this year we did make "Don Giovanni" (and to be honest I will work harder to make a Mozart than a Verdi, no real disrespect intended to Verdi.) Moreover, we made it on its premiere night.
We were in the balcony and so farther from the orchestra and stage than for 'Tosca'. But still pretty close.
The staging chosen for this production was very interesting - the whole stage became somewhat of a court with people judging the onstage action bordering the stage; this also meant there could be interesting action on stage, previewing what was to come, during the overture. Very ingenious and quite sensible. It also allowed players to change roles from time to time, observer to participant, and back. Very nice.
At the end of the performance, around 90% of the people rose in a standing ovation; I thought maybe I should have. It was a witty and very intelligent production with few weak points (orchestra was a bit out of tune at the start but they fixed it very fast!).
For me the highlight was Zerlina, followed closely by Leporello. This is probably unfair as these are the buffa roles, but really, Michele Bogdanowicz gave me what I thought was the perfect conflicted Zerlina, a minx at heart but torn among her calculations of how badly things could go (hey Zerlina! - really badly - the guy is a jerk!). Bogdanowicz's acting skills were superb, and worked well with her great singing voice. Best Zerlina I have ever seen!
Terry Hodges' Leporello was an utter delight and carried many key scenes. Again he made the buffa role work wonderfully.
The seria roles were well staffed too - Monica Huisman was a very beautiful (appearance and singing) Donna Ana, and Frederique Vezina presented a wonderfully troubled Donna Elvira, again with great singing; and I hope Benjamin Butterfield's students back at UVic get to see how wonderfully he represented poor Don Ottavio.
Of course in the end Don Giovanni depends utterly on Don Giovanni. Gregory Dahl made me believe in this completely amoral, not-getting-it-at-all nature. He could sing the high-power stuff from Giovanni, and also the delicate 'La Ci Darem la Mano' as well as the serenade to Donna Elvira's maid.
He got a standing ovation. And I say 'Hooray!'.
The demographics were a bit discouraging; I fear my presence brought the average age in the audience down. I really hope London's community finds a way to get the younger folk in to enjoy some opera (price COULD be an issue); but it was interesting, that as we left the opera and walked down Richmond street, there was so much young life doing other things, and bemusedly walking past all us old coots leaving the opera. Not the best way for things to be.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:27 PM