Sex and Violence

Graham Vick's 'Don Giovanni',
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

There are times when even a Commander of the British Empire can lose a battle. Graham Vick, winner of eight Abbiati Prizes (the Italian music critics' award) was booed for his Don Giovanni at the 27 September afternoon performance at the Teatro Sociale di Como and also at the performance I attended, on the evening of 4 October 2014, which inaugurated the opera season at the Pergolesi Theatre in Jesi. The boos were clearly addressed to Vick and his set designer Stuart Nunn, because the small orchestra (I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano), the conductor José Luis Gomez-Rios and the young cast were all warmly applauded.

The basic idea of the production is sound: to entrust it to a well-known stage director — Vick has signed five different productions of the opera over the last twenty years — and to a well-selected young cast on a cost-sharing basis between ten theatres (eight in Northern and Central Italy and two in France) with the intention of showing high standard performances even in provincial theatres...

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

DON GIOVANNI

GRAHAM VICK

ITALY