Lowry, Salford – 7 March 2018. Reviewed by Marcus Richardson
5*****
My second night in a row at the opera I saw Don Giovanni by Mozart, the company Opera North brought the show to The Lowry. The show follows a comical tale of a man who aims to seduce as many women as possible, and doesn’t care about the negative consequences. As they travel through time they are chased by two women and a husband to get their revenge on Don Giovanni.
The Cast features a lot of talented people, from the character who takes the name play Don Giovanni played by William Dazeley, and his servant Leporello played by John Savournin the iconic duo both gave an amazing performance that commanded the stage and made the audience laugh with the witty humour and canes becoming erect, yes that what I said. Their singing skills were absolutely stunning and they created a lot of the comedy with their voices, a scene that just made me laugh when these two were on stage was when they were talking about all the women Don Giovanni slept with, I was crying from laughter. The trio of Donna Anna played by Jennifer Davis and her husband Don Ottavio played by Nicholas Watts and Donna Elvira a woman abandoned by Giovanni played by Elizabeth Atherton, the skill of all of these singers is phenomenal with the powerful female vocals and use of layering their voices to create out of this world performances. The whole cast was amazing and everyone made my night including each member of the 1950s chorus.
The Conductor, Matthew Kofi Waldren, made sure the orchestra worked with the singers, the whole orchestra worked so well and in time I’m sure Mozart would be impressed. The set was one of the most creative and interesting use of a panel with a picture frame in the middle where the actors would use during some scene changes, actors would have mini bodies in this frame and also wig heads to represent all the women Giovanni has slept with. Everything looked beautiful and nothing was out of place, the costumes were no exception with each capturing each different time period perfectly.
Madama Butterfly flew to the top of my favourite Opera but was knocked down after 24 hours, by Don Giovanni, I loved the tongue-in-cheek comedy and every single aspect of the performance. As part of the Opera North trio at the Lowry including Madama Butterfly and Un Ballo In Maschera, I’ve been blown away by the first two shows and I’m excited to see the third show on Saturday.