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Don Giovanni

 

 

Composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Librettist

Lorenzo da Ponte

 

 

Venue and Dates

Glyndebourne Touring Opera, 1993.

This was Simon’s first Don Giovanni. It ran for 18 performances at the following Venues:     

 

Sadler's Wells: 21, 24, 29 September, 5, 8 October

Theatre Royal, Norwich: 14, 16 October

Theatre Royal, Plymouth: 21, 23 October

Palace Theatre, Manchester: 27, 30 October

Apollo Theatre, Oxford: 3, 6 November (not with SK)

Mayflower, Southampton: 10, November

 

 

Conductor

Louis Langree

Director

David Massarella (Original production, Peter Hall)

Production

Sets and costumes: John Bury

Lighting: Keith Benson

Choreography: Jenny Weston

 

 

Performers

Don Giovanni : Simon Keenlyside (Howard Quilla Croft in Oxford, 3 and 6 November)

 

Leporello : Steven Page

 

Donna Anna : Susan McCulloch

 

Donna Elvira : Susan Bickley

 

Commendatore : David Thomas

 

Don Ottavio : Adrian Thompson

 

Zerlina : Paula O’Sullivan

 

Masetto : Michael John Pearson

 

 

Notes

If you have any further information please do let us know by emailing webmaster@simonkeenlyside.info

 

 


 

What the critics say

 

Opera, November 1993 (Rodney Milnes)

Don Giovanni

Glyndebourne Touring Opera at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, September 21

 

Sad not to experience the whole performance at this last showing of one of the great productions – the first night in 1977 remains unforgettable – but there are limits... Obviously much has changed in 16 years on both sides of the footlights, but David Massarella reproduced the outline of the Peter Hall production faithfully (including the roll of distant thunder at the Commendatore’s death), and John Bury’s designs have yet to be surpassed for their flexibility and atmosphere. Louis Langrée led a brisk performance – ‘authentic’ speeds and modern instruments don’t mix too well, and more than one movement turned into an ungainly scramble – but one properly appreciative of the music’s dramatic weight and purpose.

 

Hall’s view of Giovanni as a fish-eyed, pasty faced psychopath, so revolutionary in 1977, is no longer news. While Simon Keenlyside didn’t in any sense reproduce the reading, he remained dangerous, and dangerously charming – the beguiling musicianship of his singing alone saw to that. He is one of the most abundantly talented of the younger generation of British singers. And the versatile Steven Page is one of the most interesting: Keenlyside and this Giovanni-turned-Leporello worked out the sort of sparky partnership that has always been a feature of the Hall production.

 

Susan McCullogh (Anna) prudently refrained from pushing her healthy voice – she doesn’t really need to – and sailed through ‘Or sai chi l’onore’ confidently. If Susan Bickley’s Elvira was on the edgy, steely side, it was also ideally secure and spirited; Paula O’Sullivan’s Zerlina was a sweetie (and less naughty than Hall’s Elizabeth Gale). A duly sonorous Commendatore from David Thomas, and an unusually warm-voiced Masetto from Michael John Pearson.