Don GIovanni Glyndebourne 2011

Glyndebourne 2011

Don Giovanni

The Sussex downs, a Summer's day, scones and clotted cream, parasols and gowns of gold. An afternoon at Glyndebourne, archetypally English. The Glyndebourne experience is truly one to cherish from the gorgeous setting and manicured gardens to the immaculate tea rooms (cream teas recommended) and three course dinners served quickly but with style. Little wonder that the waiting list now stretches beyond two decades.

A revolutionary new staging - a revolving, rotating and hydraulically operated grey cube - provides the backdrop for the latest outing of Mozart’s comic opera, Don Giovanni. Comic opera I hear you ask, with rape and murder to the fore? Or tragic tale tinged with comic moments. Jonathan Kent's outstanding new production opts firmly for the former, his touch gentle, tone light, his comedy quite pronounced.
Leporello, (beautifully played by Matthew Rose), firmly leads the way, his repartee with his amoral master, witty, sharp and crisp. Indeed, his rendition of the Madamina aria is one of the highlights of the evening, his performance threatening and even surpassing a strangely subdued Don Giovanni (Lucas Meacham) lacking passion and power, his duet – La ci darem la mano – with Zerlina (Marita Solberg) disappointing and weak. Zerlina, by contrast, rises to her surroundings, giving the performance of the evening. Coquettish and sexually provocative, she displays a purity of tone, moving shamelessly from one lover to the next and leading poor Masetto (David Soar) by the nose. Also disappointing were Donna Elvira (Mia Persson) and particularly Albina Shagimuratova’s soprano, who, despite coasting comfortably through Donna Anna's complex coloratura, failed to entirely engage.

The cube remains throughout, impassive and silent, its huge frame dominating the stage now as maiden’s window, now as townhouse courtyard and to all a talking point. To traditionalists, it courts controversy, its constant transitioning unnecessarily detracting but to modernists it is essential, the resurrection of a decomposing Commandatore from an almost semi vertical stage ultimately enhancing the dramatic effect.

Robin Ticciati with his trademark energy and attention to detail, manages to solicit an astonishing performance from The Orchestra of the Enlightenment - thereby surely cementing his candidacy as the Director of Glyndebourne for 2013 – and builds to an outstanding crescendo as Giovanni plunges into eternal damnation, the cube having metamorphosed, one final time, into the gates of hell.

7/10. Richard Smith Morgan