Pure resourcefulness and gritty enthusiasm are the foundational elements on which Melbourne-based Lyster Opera survives.

Since 2016, the company has provided a valuable platform for young and emerging artists to hone their skills, while giving audiences in Melbourne and across regional Victoria opportunities to experience opera up close at affordable prices.

Opening Saturday at South Yarra’s Irene Mitchell Studio, a new travelling production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni makes a strong case for the work’s ability to reveal its seductive nature outside the grandeur of major opera stagings, demonstrating also the art form’s continuing relevance for younger generations drawn to opera.

Nicholas Beecher in Lyster Opera’s Don Giovanni. Photo © Phil Thomson

Directed by the company’s artistic director Jamie Moffat, its bargain-basement budget does not stand in the way of an enjoyable production that balances drama and comedy without fuss. The edges can sometimes appear rough, but the integrity of Mozart’s masterful score and its dramatic chemistry come through commendably.

That balance, or budget, is nowhere more telling than when the scene is set for the Don’s final demise and an ornate French Empire carver is carried out, followed by a collapsable campsite table and chequered tablecloth. Amid the palatial chandelier-laden surroundings evoked by imagery printed on a half-dozen or so simple room-dividers – part of the overall classical style of Blair Parkinson’s stage design and Maddy Connellan’s neatly distinguished early 19th century costumes – the incongruity, intended or not, is rather chucklesome.

With it all, an appropriately atmospheric mood is created for the Don’s relentless pursuit of seduction and deception under Daniel Sinfield’s candlelit aesthetic lighting design.

Once the dividers are shuffled around by the ensemble for each scene change – providing concealment and passage for multiple entry and exit points – it is left to the musical, vocal and acting capabilities to convey the revulsion provoked by the amorous, rapacious and murderous exploits of a charismatic libertine whose victims are left traumatised.

Eddie Muliaumaseali’i and Nicholas Beecher in Lyster Opera’s Don Giovanni. Photo © Phil Thomson

In the titular role, Nicholas Beecher exudes a cunning, diplomatic air, accompanied by the reassuring veneer of the “honest nobleman” he presents himself to be. Beecher’s warm, honeyed baritone is a lovely match for the Don’s requisite charm. From coasting through the presto passages of Act I’s Champagne Aria – when Don Giovanni orders his servant Leporello to organise a party – with notable agility to giving Act II’s languid serenade “Deh, vieni alla finestra” an embracing expressiveness, his is a performance of appealingly nuanced bravura.

The shoulders on which the work’s comic core rests are robustly carried by Bernard Leong Lokman’s grudging lackey, Leporello. From the moment he lists the Don’s thousands of romantic conquests (one might dare to say, possibly crimes) in Act I’s oft-performed Catalogue Aria, his confidently rendered, earthen baritone marks the text with animated aplomb, with his physical and vocal vibrancy adding an especially effective presence to the two resounding sextets.

As the victimised Donna Anna, Kerry Gill conveys the trauma of her encounter with the Don and subsequent revenge with excellently measured emotivity, her plush soprano and accomplished range increasingly attacking the music as the opera progresses.

Alexandra Mathew portrays the Don’s jilted lover Donna Elvira with an anxious eccentricity, along with the madness the Don accuses her of. It’s a demanding role that Mathew embodies wholeheartedly, with keen vocal dexterity, although somewhat undone by a shrillness at the top of her range.

Stepping in for an indisposed Paul Biencourt in the role of Donna Anna’s betrothed, Don Ottavio, tenor Nicholas Sheppard does a highly commendable job, bringing an endearing sincerity to his character and music, assisted by a warm, continuous, well-controlled vibrato that adds gratifying lyricism to the part.

As the two newlyweds intercepted by the Don’s advances, Helen Koehne and make a delightful couple as Zerlina and Masetto. Koehne has the desired sweetness in her soprano, if somewhat understated in mellifluousness, while Straughan brings an impression of valour to the table along with a handsomely sounding baritone.

The biggest surprise is the luxury of having the grand, rumbling bass of Eddie Muliaumaseali’i coming to the rescue for the season in a role he is all too familiar with as Commendatore. The penultimate scene is made splendidly haunting – here, in the version with the moralising ensemble that accompanied the Prague premiere in 1787 – as he almost looks to devour the sinner before him.

Notably pleasing is the overall smoothness of the recitatives and the ensemble’s Italian diction. And completing the picture, a small chorus adds vocal richness and context to the drama.

On the musical front, a vivid orchestral soundscape is achieved by a small chamber orchestra of nine musicians – tucked away to the side – led by music director Pamela Christie at the keyboard. Nevertheless, at the opening performance, the singers had to contend with moments of overpowering decibels, as well as tempi that rushed along too often with a frenetic urgency.

Ultimately, giving developing and established emerging artists valuable performance experience while bringing opera to audiences not often afforded the opportunity is a win-win formula – and yet another win for Mozart’s enduring opera.

Lyster Opera’s Don Giovanni plays at Moe Plaza (20 September), Millawa Hall (3 October), the Phee Broadway Theatre, Castlemaine (10 October), Rye Civic Hall (17 October), Creswick Town Hall (24 October), Warburton Arts Centre (31 October) and Talbot Town Hall on 14 November.