| What: Mozart’s Don Giovanni Presented by: Opera UCT Where: The Baxter Pam Golding Theatre When: October 22-25, 2026 Director: Talia Stern Orchestra: Cape Town Philharmonic Conductor: Jeremy Silver/Peggy Wu Design (set and costumes): Allegra Bernacchioni Lighting: Josh Lindberg Costume stylist and head of wardrobe: Widaad Albertus Bookings: Webtickets Duration: Approximately three hours and 15 minutes, including one interval |
Opera UCT’s Don Giovanni is a thrilling, mesmerising psycho thriller – three hours and 15 minutes of utterly gripping opera-theatre. I sat on the edge of my seat – literally- during Act 2. Staging is by Talia Stern (French-American director). Design (set and costumes) is by Allegra Bernacchioni. Opera UCT – and chorus – is accompanied by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. Peggy Wu and Jeremy Silver are alternating as conductors.
Peggy Wu (31) is a current Jette Parker Artist at the Royal Ballet and Opera. Talia Stern graduated with an MA in Opera Directing with Distinction from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 2024 and on the web, it is estimated that she is in her mid-20s or possibly late 20s. And here they are in Cape Town – young and talented – conducting and directing this mind blowing production.
It’s a production which veers increasingly to the dark side – with flickers of humour. This Don Giovanni is the arch narcopath (a term used to describe someone who is a mix of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder).He will not waiver – even in the face of death – as he totters unhinged on the gallows of a banquet table. He is steadfastly recalcitrant. In her director’s note, poses: “Often portrayed as a libertine, a rebel, or even the embodiment of sin, this production looks beneath the legend to explore the man himself. What drives him? What does he fear? Mozart leaves much of Giovanni’s inner world concealed, giving us surprisingly little access to the man behind the mask…” She notes that although he has violated women, it is the first that he has killed. Although he feels no remorse, the Commendatore “begins to haunt him.”
So he doesn’t exactly feel guilt. He just feels that he is ghosted. I don’t have any empathy for this disgusting perpetrator. There is no nuance to him as a person. But I do feel uneasy as he is lynched by the mob. It brings to mind scenes of Paris after the Liberation (World War II), with female collaborators of the Nazis being flayed, their heads shaven. Yes, we love baddies to get punished but not like this – as lustful revenge. Yes, as the director reflects, “the women of this production are given greater agency as witnesses brave enough to speak out. In a world where sexual violence against women remains so prevalent, staging Don Giovanni is an enormous responsibility.” Yes, they do. They are feisty, sassy and outspoken, but it is an agency, curbed by the crushing narcissism, control and expediency of the Alpha males in their landscape.
Allegra Bernacchioni’s set is a masterpiece – minimalist, stark, stripped back, shrouded and veiled with scaffolding, climaxing in an epic denouement with a grand and dramatic tableaux. The minimalist set aesthetic offsets the gorgeous costumes – lace to reflect the Spanish setting and leather (bondage?), Zerlina, the country gal, is decked out in and lacy Forever New garb and espadrilles. Mardi Gras/Carnival masks become animalistic and macabre as disguises and effigies. It is a circus – not in a good way.
There are two casts. We saw the Friday cast at the FDR last night, October 20: Sisa Mjekula (Don Giovanni), Msimelelo Mbali (Il Commedatore), Setsoane Ntseki (Donna Anna), Vuyani Halam (Don Ottavio), Dineo Bokala (Donna Elvira), Siya Ntlale (Leporello), Masetto (Landula Hambile) and Ash Fuchs (Zerlina). I am unable to attend the opening.
The cast that we saw (Friday cast) is outstanding – with vocal and theatrical excellence. I would go again if I had an opportunity. Yes, that good but it is a very busy weekend and there is no time to see it again. I would love to see the other cast and the coupling which pops up in the nest of the stark scaffolding.
It is an opera of unbridled lust – yes, underscored by Don Giovanni’s warped sense of romance-conquest and his skewed sense of what consent means. Within all that toxicity, there is a beautiful love scene, of make-up sex (without the sex) between Zerlina and Masetto. We saw Ash Fuchs as Zelina and Landula Hambile as Masetto. Their chemistry is a knockout. The theatrical and high drama is tempered in tandem with voice. Astounding physical theatre – gesture, mime, knowing looks, conflicted. Interesting to note that Fuchs is 23 and started off studying drama, before pivoting to opera. Jeremy Silver told me that Hambile did an architecture degree before his studies. He is in first year at Opera UCT. There is magic between Giovanni (Sisa Mjekula) and Leprello (Siya Ntlale), which peaks in the gallows/banquet scene – a dance of desperation between master and servant, perpetrator and enabler.
Josh Lindberg’s lighting plot is sublime – an interplay of shadows – light, darkness; concealing, masking; revealing. His lighting plays off the reflective and translucent scaffolding – which is a mix of plastic sheeting and bolts of organza.
Excellent surtitles – English and isiXhosa- cued in live by Morgan Ehmke. During interval, at interval, I was chatting to Ean Smith (répetiteur/coach) and Ehmke. They told me that they learn Italian. French and German. They know what they are singing. It shows with precise articulation.
Mozart’s music is a joy and offsets the darkness. Although there is a lovely sense of clown and buffoon which is laced into this production. The clown and buffoon and Theatre of the Absurd is amplified by the masks – which are a lot of fun – but also sinister and menacing. Luckily Siya Ntlale as Leporello provides comic release – from the start when he is snacking on a packet of crisps – right through as he bolsters his boss, and ultimately becomes him as he steps into Giovanni’s skin. Giovanni is in disguise already which adds to the drama and intrigue. The sense of self becomes blurred and the delicious paring between the artists, heightens that. I must admit that when I read the synopsis for the plot (I was not familiar with the opera), I was flummoxed by the couplings and what seemed silly disguises but this production makes total sense – embracing the absurd – finessing Don Giovanni as a pyschothriller which resonates sadly in terms of decent women who are drawn to and who obsess over bad men and the violence and rupture that results in a bloodbath. This opera is meant to be a mix of dark and funny. It is “funny” – but it is unrelenting in its gaze that Giovanni is not a nice person – never mind how charming he is. A cautionary tale.
It is a rave from me. Bravo bravo to Opera UCT. Do not miss.
✳ Opera UCT’s Don Giovanni, Pam Golding Theatre, Baxter, Cape Town, October 22-25, 2026. Pic: Kim Stevens.
