“I showed you a life outside of the closet”
Kylie once told us ‘you’ll never get to heaven if you’re
scared of getting high’ which in all honesty is less an effective way to open a
review than to finally shoehorn one of my favourite pop lyrics onto this blog.
The tenuous link is that this gender-switching reimagining of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni is occupying the rather unlikely surroundings of legendary gay
nightspot Heaven, situated under the arches at Charing Cross on Sunday and
Monday nights for the next couple of weeks.
Though one of the most popular operas in the world, it is
safe to say that you probably haven’t seen a Don Giovanni like this one in Dominic
Gray’s marvellous production. Relocated to the heady nightclub scene of London
in 1987, this Don is more interested in tenors than sopranos and so David
Collier’s book flips the gender of the majority of the characters, mixes in all
kinds of sexualities in a heady brew, yet still emerges with a coherent, clear narrative
for this recast story. What really makes this work spark though is Ranjit Bolt’s
rejuvenated libretto.
It is, quite frankly, hilarious. Profane, lascivious,
honestly sexual and bluntly cruel, it is the perfect vehicle to carry the
updating and demand the full attention of the watching audience. It is helped
by being sung by an excellent company whose crispness and clarity of diction
(for the most part), in this rather cavernous venue, is to be commended. Mark
Cunningham and Helen Winter stood out in smaller roles, but Zoë Bonner’s
long-suffering hugely-bequiffed PA Leo is a sheer delight. From the opening
song, she grips and subsequently holds on the audience’s empathy and is the
perfect touchstone throughout the show, especially in the brilliant (and
all-too-accurate) relocating of the Catalogue Song to notorious homosexual
hangouts.
And then there’s the Don. Duncan Rock is perfectly cast
here, a man for whom the word strapping does no justice, he physically looks
the part of a bed-hopping playboy who could get anyone to forgive him anything
with a flex of a pec. But more importantly, he sounds like a dream too, his
beefy baritone rising to the challenge of this leading role and more than
meeting it, exuding charisma and a wonderfully blatant sexuality, and also maintaining the lyrical clarity that is
ultimately a hallmark of this production.
The subterranean club has been most effectively dressed
to present the seedy neon glow of Soho, not so far from the truth here!, and
also emerges as an inspired choice as a space large and flexible enough to
allow the action to play out at various points throughout the room and still
have enough room for a pocket orchestra: Joan Lane’s superbly lush string-laden
re-arrangements sounding gorgeous.
My only gripe would be the description of it as a
promenade production, with the suggestion that we can follow the actors and
singers around as they move from place to place. There was no opportunity to
move at all last night, such was the volume of the crowd, which meant there
were moments missed, sights unseen and words unheard - a frustration especially
as it always seemed to be funny things I was missing.
There’s no doubting that contemporary opera companies
have got the right idea is addressing the preconceptions many hold about opera
and trying to break those down through new and innovative productions, but care
does need to be taken to ensure the stars are all in alignment for the
particular show in mind. OperaUpClose scored a huge success with La Bohème and thought they had coined
a new genre in ‘pub opera’ but my experience last week with their problematic new
take on Carmen which rehashed many of the same ideas would suggest that that
was perhaps more of a one-off triumph, specific to that piece – not even their take
on Don Giovanni at the Soho last year really inspired.
So when I congratulate the team here on an exceptionally
well-judged marriage of innovation, material and venue, that does not mean I
want to see lots more operas randomly appearing in gay nightclubs. All adaptations
need to be lavished with as much care and attention as has been given here if
they are truly to work, rather than assuming this is a template that can be
easily replicated. But this Don Giovanni has that freshness of vision, a
musical and lyrical intelligence that should be praised and stands an excellent
chance of actually bringing, and retaining, a new audience.
Running time: 2 hours (with interval)
Booking until 30th April
Labels: Duncan Rock, opera, Zoë Bonner