All opera goers booking tickets for an old favourite such as Mozart’s Don Giovanni must wonder if the director and conductor will bring anything fresh to the work. What a delight to go to Opera Holland Park and soon realise there was an evening of surprises in store.

^{John Savournin as Leporello and Ashley Riches as Don Giovanni. Photograph © Robert Workman}

It is hard for any creative team to approach such a central work as Don Giovanni and make it their own. Director Oliver Platt and Australian conductor Dane Lam, supported by a fine cast, aim for freshness and originality without betraying the demands of the libretto and score of this much-loved piece.

Platt sets the opera on a 1920’s transatlantic liner where the class structure of life at sea fits neatly with the opera’s demands and also gives Giovanni ample opportunities for female liaisons. The clever set design by Neil Irish brings the singers well forward which suits the Holland Park acoustics. Not everything fits perfectly into the demands of the plot, but audiences are readily drawn into the conceit. Suspending disbelief pays dividends, revealing delightful touches of humour and...