Opera brings #metoo movement to the stage

Don Giovanni, presented by Wellington Opera, with Wellington Opera Chorus and Orchestra Wellington, directed by Sara Brodie, Wellington Opera house, until April 24.

Reviewed by Ines Almeida

Did you know the greatest and most influential composer in the history of Western music also had a sense of humour and a potty mouth to match?

I didn’t either, but I do now.

Cue Don Giovanni, Mozart’s outrageous comedy that tells a tale based on notorious scoundrel, lothario extraordinaire, Don Juan.

Don Juan was written in 1787 by Spanish writer Tirso de Molina, a Roman Catholic Monk.

These days the ladies would call Don Giovanni (Christian Thurston) a jerk or perhaps a sexual predator, rather than an irresistible, irresponsible yet lovable cad, but hey, this is how things rolled in the 17th century.

Don isn’t alone in his wretched behaviour. His sidekick or wingman, Leporello (James Ioelu) is helping him climb into an unsuspecting woman’s windows, plying drinks, and staving off the masses when it’s time for a comeuppance.

But Leporello is miserable. He knows his boss is the worst, and he longs to be a master instead of a servant.

It’s easy to feel sorry for Leporello as Ioelu does so well with his hangdog expressions, and physical narration of the torture he lives being the right-hand man to a sleaze.

There’s a tale in here somewhere about the company we keep.

And the women! Donna Elvira (Amanda Atlas), Donna Anna (Amelia Berry), and Zerlina (Natasha Wilson) are not so much conquests as they are victims.

If you want to keep opera relevant, we’re going to have to look at this narrative with a #metoo lens. Leporello’s catalogue aria alone hammers it home: this guy is a total creep.

Yet when he tells Elvira she isn’t the first, and won’t be the last, the words cut only because stories about male privilege, assault and abuse continue to be told.

Even the ‘‘good’’ guys are disappointing: Masetto (Joel Amosa) calls Zerlina a slut when he finds out Don has tried to have her way with her. Sadly, that kind of language is still used a good 234 years after this opera first hit the stage.

Thankfully, a ghost takes matters into his own hands, and Don ultimately pays for his sins, but I would’ve preferred an ending more along the lines of A Promising Young Woman where the women, not a ghost, have the last word.