Is Don, is bad: Don Giovanni a serial abuser not hapless rake

A powerful philanderer brought down by the women he has left in his wake? It could be a newspaper headline.

In his 400-year history, the character of Don Giovanni, or Don Juan, has become a folk hero, invariably described as a “trickster”, a “playboy”, and a “seducer”. Mozart saw things differently. This month, Mozart’s 1787 opera, The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni, returns to the Melbourne stage at the Athenaeum Theatre.

“I don’t think Don Giovanni was ever meant to be a hero,” says Suzanne Chaundy, director of The Rake Punished.

And yet somehow, over the centuries, he’s become one. Chaundy recalls attending previous productions and seeing audiences delight at the lead character’s charm. “When you actually dig into it, what he’s doing is appalling,” she says. “As soon as you look at it from the woman’s side of things, the opera starts to make a lot more sense.”

Part of Chaundy’s reading of the opera involves restoring its original title, Il dissoluto punito, emphasising the character’s fate. Over the centuries, the name, Don Giovanni, has taken heroic centre-stage. But even the term, “rake”, is easy to read as a loveable rogue, an antihero. The name certainly doesn’t carry connotations of abuse and murder.

The opera opens with Giovanni, played by Christopher Tonkin, escaping a woman’s bedroom in disguise. She follows in pursuit. All indications are that “seduction” isn’t the word we would use today. “He’s not averse to using force,” says Chaundy.

In his haste to escape, he murders the woman’s father, the Commendatore (Eddie Muliaumaseali’i). Over the course of the opera, his misdeeds pursue him to his grave.

The Rake Punished is the latest in a run of Mozart operas for Chaundy, who recently directed productions of The Marriage of Figaro and Così Fan Tutte, also for Melbourne Opera. All three have librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

“Mozart loved women, you know?” says Chaundy. “He was interested in women on a psychological level. His operas often have these really interesting female characters.”

In the opera, it’s three female characters, played here by Lee Abrahmsen, Eleanor Greenwood and Rebecca Rashleigh, who drive the Don to his downfall. Through their eyes, he’s seen with a mix of rage, pity and fear. Aside from his charm, he has power and privilege. It’s not hard to see the story through a contemporary lens in an age in which powerful, wealthy men who have used their positions to abuse others are finally held to account.

The action takes place on stage and off, spilling into the Juliet balconies and beyond. It’s not the only way the piece continues beyond the stage.

Chaundy says intimacy co-ordinator Lisa Petty likened the play’s opening scene to many high-profile sexual assault cases in which men are protected by their social and class status. And like countless similar stories brought to light in recent years, Giovanni is a man unburdened by conscience or by consequences.

“It’s absolutely contemporary,” she says. “These themes of power and privilege are so strong.”

After the murder, Giovanni is pursued by a previous lover, Donna Elvira, who feels a mix of resentment and pity for him. Giovanni’s servant, Leporello (played by Henry Shaw), recites to her the catalogue of the Don’s conquests – over 2000 women and girls.

“We’ve taken a careful approach to staging that catalogue scene, to make sure it really resonates with the audience.” The production gives the women physical presence, using the female chorus. “These aren’t just abstract notions, they’re real people.”

The final character of the trio of women, Zerlina, a peasant whom Giovanni attempts to seduce, is a case in point. “He has this sexual power, and a predatory power, but it’s also that he’s so wealthy,” says Chaundy. “He’s able to offer her, more than anything else, an alternative life.”

It’s complex balance to strike. The opera is a dramma giocoso, a drama comedy, after all, and Chaundy says Giovanni has to be charming, or the women he seduces will look like idiots. But it’s comedy with bite. The story remains focused on the power he has over people.

“It’s quite a larrikin production,” says Chaundy. “But we’re careful not to heroicise him.”

The Rake Punished is at the Athenaeum Theatre from April 26 to May 3.