✭✭✭✩✩

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, directed by Marshall Pynkoski

Opera Atelier, Elgin Theatre, Toronto

November 11-20, 2004

This is the first time since its premiere in 1996 that Toronto has had chance to see Opera Atelier’s groundbreaking production of Don Giovanni.  Back then it was the first period production of Mozart’s great work in North America and it was, and still is, one of the few productions to present the opera as a bustling comedy rather than the dark drama of a dissolute seducer of women.  Though any work that begins with a murder and ends with the title character literally going to hell has to be a highly unusual comedy.  What director Marshall Pynkoski emphasizes is the commedia dell’arte background of the characters’ interactions. 

For Pynkoski, Don Giovanni has the comic curse of being irresistibly attracted and attractive to any woman he meets.  To work this conception needs a comic, charismatic Don.  Unhappily, American baritone Michael Chioldi is not that person.  His delivery is more forceful than mellifluous and his demeanour suggests more the violent scoundrel than the helpless lover.  It doesn’t help that unlike the rest of the cast he has not fully mastered the poise and grace of Baroque deportment.

Luckily, Chioldi’s undercharacterized Don is surrounded by a gallery of colourful portraits, made gorgeous, as usual, by Dora Rust-D’Eye’s opulent period costumes.  As Leporello, the Don’s hapless servant, Olivier Laquerre is delightful, rich-voiced Harlequin figurine come to life.  Colin Ainsworth as the ardent Don Ottavio, Peggy Kriha-Dye as the clinging Donna Elvira and Nathalie Paulin as the flirtatious peasant bride Zerlina all provide the most consistently beautiful singing of the evening.  Though the slapstick elements become repetitive, Pynkoski and choreographer Jeannette Zingg fill the show with more nonstop action than you’ll ever find in a conventional production.  British conductor Andrew Parrott leads the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in a briskly paced performance that keeps the bright, youthful cast on its toes.             

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-11-18.

Photo: Michael Chioldi and Olivier Laquerre. ©2004 Bruce Zinger.