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Fiona Maddocks's rating
, Bonking Don brings Mozart to the masses
By
Fiona Maddocks
9 Sep 2008
“Fancy an evening of sex and violence?” the Sun asked its readers, urging them to satisfy their desires with a night at the opera. Actually some of us have been hanging around the red plush for years and landed nothing more than a pinch on the bottom and even that was last century.
But with an eye to a chance (top price £30), more than 2,000 of them said yes and filled the Royal Opera House for a revival of Francesca Zambello’s staging of Don Giovanni, starring the delicious Simon Keenlyside in an undelicious long red wig, and with Charles Mackerras, ever wise and brisk, conducting.
Some had checked out the plot on Wikipedia. Others arrived refreshingly untrammelled by knowledge. “So Mozart wrote the music,” pondered the woman behind me. “Is there a story, too? Really? Well what a clever, old bugger he was.”
“What’s it about?” asked her grown-up son. “Probably some bloke bonking where he shouldn’t of,” mum replied, with pithy accuracy.
Keenlyside has sung the title role of the illicit bonker — as Mozart’s great anti‑hero must henceforth be known — in this production before, with the excellent, droll Kyle Ketelsen back as Leporello.
As Donna Anna, a majestic Marina Poplavskaya (overheard at the interval: “What did you think of her?” “Lovely hair”) had a bad throat infection but did indeed have lovely hair. Miah Persson was nervous in her first Zerlina but had lively support from Robert Gleadow’s Masetto.
Joyce di Donato was a gripping Elvira, the kind of love-crazed woman who might have cut off Don Giovanni’s trouser legs had they not stopped at the knee already.
The audience was distinguishable from the normal rabble merely by being better dressed and slightly younger. No one dribbled or waved football rattles, despite dire warnings from media doom-mongers. The only toffs were the sort that come in wrappers. What next? Bingo players? Rat catchers? As social engineering goes, it was hardly subtle. But what a coup.
Until 4 October (020 7304 4000).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (5)
Actually, Tony, I don't think the lottery does keep Covent Garden going, does it? Sure, it paid for about 1/4 of the redevelopment costs - which I suspect was largely eaten up by such mundane things as updating the electricals to modern standards and solving other health and safety issues, anyway - (and that redevelopment created a lot of the spaces used in the DeloitteIgnite festival last weekend, reported on elsewhere on this site, which appears to have attracted a lot of newcomers to the ROH), but as far as I know the only publicly-generated income the ROH has is still a proportion of the minute amount of our taxes that the government spends on the arts in general. Putting on international-standard opera ain't cheap, and if subsidy enables me and others to afford a cheap (£8) ticket to a normal performance, rather than pushing the tickets out of our reach, then I'm all for it. (Incidentally, there was no additional public funding used for the Sun performance - it was simply sponsorship by the Hamlyn Foundation which allowed them to make the tickets so affordable.)
- Alison, London, 16/09/2008 13:39
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Hi Tony i do know "operas" such as the magic flute were performed in what could be called a music hall. I also know that taxes and lottery go on things i actually object to, but there you are.
I go to the opera because i love it, not to be seen, not to congratulate myself how clever i may think i may be. I come from a working class family in the North East and do not get into some class war/resentment that you seem to be latently be harbouring. It may be elitist in the best sense...that is by and large the audience are quiet, not playing with mobile phones, world class performances and true superstars on top of their game.
Its as much a white elephant as going to football and not having much change out of £60 for a seat in the rain and myself having to pay for the policing of the event because the knuckle heads cannot behave themselves.
- Paul, london, 09/09/2008 20:27
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Tony, Covent Garden is no white elephant as you suggest. The house is not as elitist as people might think. Yes some seats you will not get much change from £200, but if like me and other opera goers Covent Garden, can be reasonably priced, for the same price as a round of drinks in some of the surrounding bars.
Nice idea by Covent Garden, but I doubt it will have much impact on a new audience. I bet the cleaners were busy this morning.
- Samuel Lewis, London WC2, 09/09/2008 13:59
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Dear Tony Mcmahon from London
Yes, thanks to the lottery money, normal working people like myself can still enjoy opera under 10.00 (if you do not mind the hight that is!). Great!
- Tsukasa, London, 09/09/2008 12:07
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Some opera buffs seem to forget that a hundred years ago, operas and operettas often played to working class audiences. The social exclusivity we normally associate with opera is a relatively recent phenomenon. Frankly, opera could do with being pulled down to the masses. After all, it's their lottery money which keeps that white elephant in Covent Garden going. Or maybe opera's wealthy fans would like to pay for the whole thing themselves. No, thought not.
- Tony Mcmahon, London, UK, 09/09/2008 09:54
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