Photo by Laura Lundy-Paine
'The Hills' as in The Hillside Club, to be exact — in Berkeley, on March 1, 3, and 9, after performances on Feb. 22 and 24 in the less headline-apt Rhythmix Cultural Works of Alameda — the great Mozart work in the experienced hands of Olivia Stapp as stage director and Jonathan Khuner as music director.
The Virago Theatre production features Anders Froehlich (Don Giovanni), Jo Vincent Parks (Leporello), Angela Eden Moser (Donna Anna), Ray Chavez (Don Ottavio), Eileen Meredith (Donna Elvira), Elizabeth Baker (Zerlina), William Pickersgill (Commendatore), and Jason Sarten and Jordan Eldredge double-cast (as Masetto).
Virago's music productions began in 2006 with The Threepenny Opera, going on to La bohème (2010), La traviata (2011), and Madama Butterfly (2012). The company's emphasis is "on the quality of singers and the emotional context of the story, de-emphasizing elaborate scenic design and traditional staging."
More Don Giovanni? Here comes Donald Pippin and Pocket Opera with performances of the Mozart opera in Pippin's English translation: March 3, at the Napa Valley Opera House; March 10, in the Palace of the Legion of Honor; and March 17, the same Hillside Club where the Virago production will bow on March 1.