Henry Shaw

What makes Leporello one of opera's most fascinating supporting roles?

It may just be the ego of the actor, but I don't see Leporello as a supporting character, which may be why he is so interesting. Don Giovanni is the title character, but in terms of an arc, he's incredibly steadfast to his morals, he dies rather than change. Leporello opens the show telling the audience he wants to be a master, not a servant, spends the whole show complaining about following Don G around while enabling his bad behaviour, and then is traumatised at the end when his boss gets dragged to hell. His final lines speak of wanting to go into town and find a new master, completely resigned to his current station in life. Leporello is the character who has the most change, a cautionary tale to the audience of enabling the powerful to the exclusion of all others.

Interestingly, in the finale Leporello aligns himself with Zerlina and Masetto, seemingly assigned back to his original position. His talk of aspiration to a higher station is empty, perhaps a mirror of the empty morals displayed by Don Giovanni. Mozart perhaps was not as progressive in terms of class consciousness as we are today, as the lesson learned is to not reach above one's natural place in the social order. But in that simplicity he reveals a truth about enabling a world of others instead of being true to ourselves. Some may aspire to be Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, but others would rather them be dragged to hell.

What surprised you most when preparing this role?

It's all in Italian! Who knew!

The Catalogue Aria is one of Mozart's most famous set pieces and one of the darkest. What is it like to perform it, and what does it actually tell us about Leporello?

It's interesting, because there is an element of musical voyeurism to the entire piece. Usually a character is singing about what they want, what they feel, or who they are, but here Leporello sings of his boss's achievements almost as if they were his own. Don Giovanni consumes Leporello's own identity, to the extent that Leporello's sense of pride is in another's achievements. I use the term achievements with some flexibility, "to assault one woman is a tragedy, 1003 is a statistic," to misquote Joseph Stalin (itself already a misattribution).

In the aria, Leporello sees no issue in the thousands of women on the list, it's all a game and sport to feed the appetite of his monstrous master. At this point it stops being something that Leporello or Don Giovanni seem to mine any joy from; it's just the life that they both live, although the Don seems more committed to his crimes than Leporello is. In the aria, Leporello is revelatory in the dehumanisation of women, reducing them to bodies and hair, thinking it's all very funny that Donna Elvira is so appalled by his revelations. I hope to bring at least some of Elvira's disgust to the audience, if they're still completely on board with Leporello by the end of the aria, something has gone terribly wrong.

You came through Melbourne Opera's Richard Divall Program and now you're back on the Athenaeum stage in a principal role. What does that journey mean to you?

Much like Leporello, I know my place in the social standing. I may be amongst giants onstage, but I remain a lowly peasant. I like to take each production as it comes, so while my time in the program was preparing me for main stage productions, I don't see a difference in the job that I'm doing whether that's in a smaller theatre for a handful of people or a main stage. I was once in a play where some nights the people on stage outnumbered the audience members, and it was a two-handed show! I think it was some of my best work. I think every show I do is my best work. Before you ask, yes, this will also be my best work.

Why does Don Giovanni still resonate with audiences today?

We like seeing a monster be monstrous, as it's not acceptable in our day to day lives. He lies, cheats, and steals and runs away from consequence. Who wouldn't want that? But we still have the moral catharsis of seeing him murdered by the end, so balance is restored to the world and we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that bad people always get what's coming to them and are never rewarded. Who's the president right now again?

What do you hope audiences understand about Leporello after seeing this production?

He's a bad guy. Funny, maybe, but definitely a bad guy. He's the type of person that hides behind a more powerful figure and forfeits his morality to an easy subservience. Don't get me wrong, I aim to be as fun and exciting to watch as I can be, but the audience should walk away thinking Leporello is a fairly pathetic character.

Describe Leporello in three words.

Spineless. Brown-nosing. Sycophant.