Don Giovanni review – Ivan Fischer's singular vision leaves his singers in limbo

When is a performance of an opera in the theatre not a production? The answer, at least according to conductor Ivan Fischer, is when it is a “staged concert”. Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra previously presented his singular vision of the Marriage of Figaro in Edinburgh two years ago. I recall this as being full of energy and humour, with the orchestra literally at the front and centre of the stage, and at the very heart of the drama.

Fischer and his orchestra return to Edinburgh with another Mozart/Da Ponte opera with Fischer once again in the dual role of conductor and director. Don Giovanni is a rather different prospect from Figaro – here there are few opportunities for humour and Fischer’s approach is more conventional and arguably less successful. On this occasion the orchestra is back in the pit (albeit raised to auditorium level) while the action unfolds on an all-black stage, empty but for a couple of raised platforms.

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In this staged concert, as Fischer explains in his programme note, the singers play themselves wearing their own evening dress – or jeans and a denim shirt in the case of José Fardilha’s Leporello – while a troop of young acting students functions as set, props and chorus. Quite why these actors are cast as Greek players, all body stockings, drapery and white paint isn’t clear; they seem to function as an attractive, malleable Attic frieze. Furthermore, the claim that the singers are playing themselves seems a little disingenuous: any staging, however minimal, would seem to imply that the singers are playing their roles rather than being themselves.

Philosophical discussions aside, the real impact is on the drama. The singers are in a curious limbo, neither left to their own devices to sing as in a concert performance nor given enough direction to make this a truly theatrical production. Christopher Maltman’s Don Giovanni is vocally adequate, but his performance lacks the necessary swagger and menace that makes the character seductive and yet dangerous. There is more than decent singing, too, from the rest of the cast, particularly Don Giovanni’s trio of women: Laura Aikin (Donna Anna), Lucy Crowe (Donna Elvira) and Sylvia Schwartz (Zerlina), but again there is little that stands out dramatically. Occasional flashes of brilliance from the orchestra serve as a reminder that Fischer is a conductor with great things to say about Mozart, but overall this is a performance that fails to do justice to the dramatic aspects of the drama.