The stage is set. Chandeliers aglow with candlelight hang from the rafters in a room adorned like a 17th-century palace in Seville. A concrete statue stands in a stately courtyard, while a brick and mortar gate marks the entrance to the underworld. All that is missing are the players — Don Giovanni and his minion, a slew of townspeople and peasants, dancers, a nobleman and the many beautiful women who catch the eye of the dissolute Giovanni. Enter Vashon Opera. Its talented cast will inhabit the roles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s evocative portrait of an unrepentant libertine in his opera “Don Giovanni,” which kicks off the opera company’s season.
“All the characters in this opera are larger than life,” said Vashon Opera artistic director Jennifer Krikawa, who also plays the part of Donna Elvira. “The opera is a comedy with an overarching tragic theme. There are funny moments along the way of a serious topic that asks can people commit evil and get away with it?”
While the show may be about the debauched, the profligate and promiscuous, those working behind the scenes, the Vashon Opera volunteers, deserve halos for their long hours, particularly islander Royce Wall. Wall is the volunteer master of illusion who created the elaborate “Don Giovanni” set — all without any previous experience.
“There is an art to set design,” Krikawa said. “You might need a stone wall, but it can’t be stone or it would be too heavy to move. Wall studied how to create a realistic set, but without the weight.”
The process began, Wall said, with an idea, a model built by Krikawa and her children, and studying the set of the New York “Don Giovanni” production. The New York set involved flats and fabric stretched over a frame, but Vashon Opera wanted a three-dimensional look.
So Wall used eight-foot pieces of one-inch styrofoam to carve the stone and brick to make the castle.
“I did a lot of research, looking at YouTube videos on ways to paint styrofoam,” he said.
Wall, who began the project in August, said he has worked on the set everyday at longtime opera supporter Tom Bardeen’s barn, located across the street from Vashon High School. Once Wall had the concept and the materials, a large crew of volunteers helped build and paint the set, including a trompe l’oeil for the city walls. Wall fashioned chandeliers out of PVC piping and very light wood. The balls on top of the gate, painted to look like concrete, are just inflatable plastic globes. Like any good set, it is all a grand illusion.
A former residential real estate salesman from Texas, Wall moved to the island in 2010 to be closer to his sister, who lives in Gig Harbor.
“I had heard about Vashon, so when I decided to move to the Northwest, my sister picked me up from the airport, and we came over here. I knew right away that this was where I wanted to be,” he said.
Wall first volunteered for the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum, is now on the board of the Chamber of Commerce and has been part of the opera volunteer team for three years.
“My dear friend Susan Hedrick first asked me to help with the opera,” he said, “so I started with props, then moved on to help with the sets. Now I’m building them.”
Wall, who has an artistic background and who according to Krikawa, has amazing painting skills, said that set design has been both fun and challenging. But even more, he really enjoys working with the other volunteers.
“They are a great group of people,” he said.
Krikawa, who volunteers her time as artistic director, faces a different challenge behind the scenes. As a performer preparing for a role, Krikawa commences
learning the music and lyrics, often in another language, six months before a show.
“If you have your music down really well, then should something happen, say a violinist drops a bow, you won’t be flustered,” Krikawa said. “The goal is to be so solid, so set, that you are ready for anything.”
Anton Belov, who plays the role of the dastardly Giovanni, hails from Portland with a dossier packed with roles and accolades. Konstantin Kvach, an international soloist also from Portland, will portray Il Commendatore. His stage daughter, Donna Anna, will be played by Seattle soprano Janeanne Houston. Other Seattle stars include Jonathan Silvia as Leporello, Eric Neuville as Don Ottavio, Megan Chenovick as Zerlina and Michael Dunlap as Masetto. Vashon singers make up a chorus of villagers, with dancers from the Vashon Dance Academy.
A chamber orchestra led by James Brown, who is also the stage director and musical arranger, will accompany the singers. Brown has been a constant star for the Vashon Opera, having staged, conducted and arranged the music for “Werther,” “Die Fledermaus,” “Il Tabarro/Gianni Schicchi” and many of the 15 productions produced during the opera’s last five seasons.
Known as one of the most performed operas worldwide, “Don Giovanni” premiered in Prague in 1787, with music by Mozart and the Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. The popularity of the opera may be due to its story about a bad man who acts badly, or because it is a universal, cautionary tale about immoral behavior. In either case, Krikawa’s character, along with her father Il Commendatore, tries unsuccessfully to convince Giovanni to mend his ways and regret his wrong doings.
“We all give him a lot of chances to change, but he is unrepentant,” Krikawa said.
In true fashion for an unrepentant opera lover, Krikawa gave voice to what many of the cast must feel when she said, “I can’t wait to get out there and do it.”
“Don Giovanni” opens with a performance at 8 p.m. Friday. There will be a matinee performance at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Both shows will be held at the Vashon High School theater. Purchase season tickets for $32 each online at www.vashonopera.org. Individual $35 tickets are available at the Vashon Bookshop and www.vashonopera.org. The show is expected to sell out. Reduced-price tickets for the dress rehearsal at 7 p.m. tonight are also available online.
