Review: DON GIOVANNI, Hackney Empire, March 11 2016

We're in the sewers under Vienna, from where Harry Lime ran his drugs trade in the Third Man, to meet another amoral antihero, Mozart's Don Giovanni. Based on the legend of Don Juan, the womaniser who left a trail of destruction behind him, his "conquests" catalogued by his appalled but fascinated servant Leporello, Don Giovanni is going to hell, and, in this innovative and stunningly lit production (on tour until June), he's halfway there in any case.

George Von Bergen gives Don Giovanni a heavy, testosterone-fuelled threat (to women and men) leavened with a charm that may have worked in the late 18th century, but feels hackneyed today - but, hey, when you go to the opera, you suspend the belief at the door! He sings beautifully and is particularly good bantering with Leporello, a fine turn by Matthew Stiff who gets plenty of laughs in this English language adaptation by Jeremy Sams. Though you can pretty much hear every word, surtitles are shown - a boon to those of us who always watch the television with the words on screen!

It's the women who really make this production fly - they may be victims of Don Giovanni's insatiable appetite for lust and betrayal, but they are more than mere ciphers to underline his swordsmanship. Ania Jeruc is a spectacular Donna Elvira, dressed like a black version of Lewis Carroll's Red Queen, she hates her manipulative lover, but cannot resist him - something of the psychology of the addict on display in the birthplace of psychoanalysis. Less susceptible to his charms is Donna Anna (a passionate Camilla Roberts) whose lust is more for Don Giovanni's dead body than his live one. Lucy Hall is a coquettish Zerlina whose honour is somewhat biddable throughout despite Bradley Travis' attempts to save it as a schoolboyish Masetto. Both Timothy Dawkins and Robyn Lyn Evans have relatively minor roles, but sing their setpiece arias with tremendous authority in two highlights of the evening.

With the orchestra under Michael Rosewell playing all those notes and the music resonating around the old theatre, it's a real treat to witness this great classic of Mozart's canon. Quite apart from the sensory overload opera's combination of music, voice, set design and acting always brings, there are real questions set by Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto about the relationships between men and women, about the extent to which one can satisfy one's own pursuit of happiness at the expense of others and about the use of power afforded by class, money or charisma. As another rich man, with a record of using his wealth and dubious charm to seduce women, aims for the most powerful office in the world, these questions are as relevant today as they were two hundred years ago.

Photo Richard Hubert Smith