New Don Giovanni is a case of opera without frontiers

A Ukrainian and Russian born duo star in the new Don Giovanni - and the result is magical.

Yuri Kissin and Andrei Kymach are magical together in Opera Australia's Don Giovanni. Picture: Keith Saunders

• Blood, thunder and revenge served hot
• Surprises a’plenty at Simone’s party
• Songs from the dark side
• ACO’s new Strad hits a high note

The master-servant duo Don Giovanni and Leporello is one of the most celebrated in all of opera – on the one hand we have a callous immoral aristocrat, on the other a resourceful foil and tool for the rake’s despicable behaviour.

The chemistry between the two characters is all-important, both musically and dramatically, so when Ukrainian baritone Andrei Kymach was cast in the title role with Russian born Israeli bass-baritone Yuri Kissin as Leporello, many of the Opera Australia audience at the first night performance might have wondered how the partnership would work out in the light of the current conflict between the two countries.

They needn’t have worried for this was a wonderful revival of Sir David McVicar’s much admired production. Kymach, winner of the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2019, who managed to get his wife and children out of Kherson to settle in Wales, and Kissin, who left his homeland in his teens to pursue a career in Israel and France, set the stage alight with their dual Opera Australia debuts.

McVicar casts the infamous rake as a Byronic figure and there’s a brooding Gothic noir vibe to the production with Robert Jones’s sets inspired by the catacombs below Vienna’s St Stephen’s Cathedral. This is a Don Giovanni without gimmicks – no nude shower scenes or the leather SM gear of previous OA outings.

Sophie Salvesani as Donna Anna and Juan de Dios Mateos as Don Ottavio. Picture: Keith Saunders

Instead it relies on a top-notch cast, cleverly worked action thanks to a dramatic staircase which descends to and ascends from centre stage as needed, the superb conducting skills of OA regular Guillaume Tourniaire and the magnificent musicianship of the Opera Australia Orchestra under acting concertmaster Huy Nguyen Bui.

The singing team is excellent, with no weak spots. Kymach and Kissin play off each other superbly with Leporello providing most of the much-needed laughs in this tale or murder, rape and dissolution, with the antihero descending to hell in one of opera’s most dramatic and, still to this day, shocking denouements.

David Parkin and Andrei Kymach in Opera Australia's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Picture: Keith Saunders

Mozart was generous with his distribution of memorable solo arias among the eight main characters in this three-hour dramatic epic and most of whom get a gorgeous solo aria.

Young Australian Sophie Salvasani, who previously performed in La Traviata and West Side Story, making her debut as Donna Anna, was enormously impressive, her sweet, athletic soprano proving an effective contrast to the dramatic timbre of Bronwyn Douglass (Donna Elvira), who so impressed in last year’s concert performance of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda.

Spanish tenor Juan de Dios Mateos was perfect as Anna’s drip of a fiance Don Ottavia, a role he performed in OA’s 2020 production, his light tenor a sweet contrast to the three bass baritones who dominate the score, with bass David Parkin now a regular go-to Commendatore for OA productions.

Cathy Zi-Dang, seen recently in Pinchgut productions Charpentier’s Medee and Rameau’s Platee, was a delight as the peasant girl Zerlina, while her cuckolded fiance Masetto was nicely handled by young Australian baritone Andrew Williams. Her aria Batti, batti in which she invites him to beat her takes on a disturbing relevance in light of current anti-domestic and gender-based violence campaigns.

There are 11 performances left as I write and I strongly suggest you book one.

DETAILS

• OPERA Don Giovanni by Mozart

• WHERE Sydney Opera House

• WHEN Thursday, January 5

• SEASON Until February 17