‘Outstanding achievement’ ★★★★ ½

One of the best productions of Mozart’s 1787 masterpiece I have ever seen, this chamber version of Don Giovanniuses every inch of the Arcola’s challenging Studio 1 space to good effect. We hear every note of the glorious score, played by string quartet with bassoon, clarinet, flute and double bass superlatively conducted (at the performance I saw) by Andreas Levisianos who also plays harpsichord-style accompaniments to the recitatives.

Marcio da Silva is extraordinarily talented. He sings Don Giovanni at two performances including the one reviewed here. At other performances he conducts while Oshri Segev sings the title role. Da Silva also directs both stage and music for this production which uses a cast of eight singers plus a puppeteer and an actor.

The story is, of course, familiar in various guises. In Lorenzo Da Ponte’s version, as set by Mozart, the titular character is a callous, unrepentant womaniser who accidentally murders the father of one of his victims. Eventually his deed literally comes to haunt him and he gets what he deserves – after 180 minutes of the most glorious music ever written.

High spots in this production include Da Silva’s singing of the aria in which he attempts to seduce Zerlina (Anna-Louse Wagner – good) having calculatedly wrested her from her fiancé Masetto (Jay Rockwell). It’s exquisitely simple, with Flavio Lauria as a fine Leporello supporting his master with a guitar accompaniment. Da Silva sings it so seductively that you can almost feel her yielding. I’d have given in too. Then there’s the way Helen May (as Donna Elvira) does anger and hauteur and Rosemary Carlton-Willis singing her famous love song to Don Ottavio, a very pleasing anguished tenor. In short, this production had me smiling continuously.

And incidentally, I have never heard Italian diction as clear as this in an opera by Mozart or anyone else. I am not an Italian speaker but meaning and articulation are so precise that the surtitles are almost unnecessary.

Theatrically there are some interesting ideas. A pretty sinister, slightly larger than life, white statue puppet represents the ghost of Il Commendatore at the end with Verdat Daigran (delicious gravelly basso profundo) singing in the shadows. It solves the problem of how to stage this tricky scene quite neatly although the singer could have been off stage or on the balcony. The set is fairly basic (a multi-purpose brown sheet more than earns its keep) but there has to be some shifting of chairs and so on. One of these moments is covered by the orchestra ensemble playing part of Mozart’s 40^th Symphony which was written within a months of Don Giovanni and works well here.  

Of course it’s not perfect. This is live theatre and inevitably there are some brief ragged moments – although full marks for the septet. Does anyone do multi-person arguments as well as Mozart? I have no idea why everyone is dressed in black and the silhouetted singing from the balcony above the orchestra doesn’t add much. Neither does the audience participation moment although it’s very funny.

Overall though, this Don Giovanni is an outstanding achievement. Ensemble OrQuesta did The Marriage of Figaro beautifully at the Grimeborn Festival last year. I hope they’re planning more Mozart for 2026. 

Photography; Julian Guidera

Don Giovanni

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ensemble OrQuesta with Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra Ensemble

Arcola Theatre

https://www.ensembleorquesta.com/whats-on/don-giovanni-grimeborn

Marcio da Silva Stage/Music Director                                                                                  Marcio da Silva, Beth Fitzpatrick, Andreas Levisianos Conductor

Marjorie Lemos, Orlando Bishop Assistant Director

Ensemble OrQuesta Company

Oshri Segev (28th/30th), Marcio da Silva (26th/27th/29th) Don Giovanni

Flavio Lauria Leporello

Helen May Donna Elvira

Rosemary Carlton-Willis Donna Anna

Anna-Luise Wagner Zerlina

John Twitchen Don Ottavio

Jay Rockwell Masetto

Vedat Dalgiran Il Commendatore

Orlando Bishop Puppeteer

Marjorie Lemos Actress