Opera in Brief: Musica Viva’s Summer “Don Giovanni”

Dennis Lau (Don Ottavio) and Valentina Tao (Donna Anna)

Musica Viva has recently taken to doing a Mozart opera each year, and this year’s selection of Don Giovanni, when the composer was at the height of his powers, was at the other end of the scale from last year’s La Finta Semplice, written was Mozart was just twelve.

Lam wok Ho (Leporello)
Lam wok Ho (Leporello)

The lecherous Don Giovanni can be a somewhat problematical character in the 21st century. This production dealt with issue, at least in part, by bringing out the humor of Mozart’s “dramma giocosa“. Although the story is originally Spanish, it passed into opera via Italian commedia dell’arte, roots that were particularly clear in Lam Kwok Ho’s Leporello, the servant of Don Giovanni.

Valentina Tao
Valentina Tao

Vicki Wu continues to impress both in voice and stage presence, here as a perky Zerlina, the peasant girl who is (nominally) the least formidable of the three women in the work. Valentina Tao, who looked as though she just stepped out of a Goya portrait, sang a Donna Anna who came across as younger and more vulnerable than the more usual formidable and stand-offish aristocrat. Jessica Ng rounded out the trio of sopranos as Donna Elvira.

Pan Lo shared the role of Don Giovanni with Frankie Fung. Tenor Dennis Lau was Dona Anna’s betrothed Don Ottavio, Samuel Wong sang Masetto, Zerlina’s fiancé and Michael Lam was the Commendatore.

Performed at the Hong Kong City Hall Theatre and cast entirely with young local singers, the opera itself was abridged to a length closer to two hours than the original three.


Peter Gordon is editor of the Asian Review of Books. He contributed subtitles and programme notes to this production.