Opera Queensland is bringing a new production of Mozart’s masterpiece Don Giovanni to Brisbane this October, conducted by Johannes Fritzsch with rising international star Duncan Rock making his Australian principal debut in the title role, staged in the intimate setting of the QPAC Playhouse.
Directed by Lindy Hume, this Don Giovanni is set in working class Victorian London where Jack the Ripper stalks and the aristocracy lurk to get a taste of the seedy side of life – a world where women’s bodies and lives are dispensable. “Don Giovanni ranks alongside Carmen as one of opera’s most iconic, sexually-charged characters, and there’s an expectation from audiences to see this sensuality revealed in all its intensity,” Ms Hume said. “But for me it is also about an addictive, abusive, entitled personality. You cannot stage Don Giovanni today without the context of #metoo. Don Giovanni isn’t your standard womaniser, he is a rapist and a murderer, and at the same time he is charismatic, funny and charming.”
Multi-award-winning designer Anna Cordingley injects a sense of life into this melancholic world with a contemporary Victorian costume design. Opera Queensland Artistic Director and CEO Patrick Nolan said the genius of Mozart was long overdue in Opera Queensland’s repertoire. “Don Giovanni is undoubtedly one of the great operas, with its exhilarating score, telling a powerful story of the anti-hero’s final days of pleasure as he roars towards his ultimate destruction,” Mr Nolan said.
British/Australian bass baritone Duncan Rock has has sung the role of Don Giovanni several times, including for Glyndebourne on Tour and Boston Lyric Opera, and is fast becoming renown as one of the great interpreters of the role. He will be supported by baritone Shaun Brown as Leporello, the sidekick run ragged by Don Giovanni’s escapades, and soprano Eva Kong as Donna Anna in her Opera Queensland debut.
Virgilio Marino, Hayley Sugars, Samuel Piper, Katie Stenzel and Andrew Collis complete a fine cast, supported by the Opera Queensland Chorus and Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
Readers also enjoyed this story about Opera Queensland’s The Merry Widow.
