Performance review: Don Giovanni, London, 2008

"Don Giovanni is one of the most seductive characters ever to take to a stage, says Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien. The 35-year-old star proves at London's Royal Opera House that the best way to play the dangerous don is to take him to the limit. After extreme abseiling, extreme bungee-jumping and extreme snowboarding, now we have extreme opera. Kwiecien is continually pushing himself to the edge, piling on violence and charisma.

"'At the end, when Giovanni is dragged screaming to hell, he is finally happy,' says the singer when I meet him. 'He's happy that at last there's something more exciting than killing and seducing, even though he knows he will lose everything in his final confrontation and be crushed.' The slim, trim baritone is chatting to me backstage after a rehearsal. He is wearing jeans and a figure-hugging blue sweater. With his dark short hair, twinkly eyes and dapper goatee, he exudes a Mephistophelean charm. 'When you sing Don Giovanni,' he says, 'you must always push yourself further, even if you are afraid like a rat. Have you seen a rat when it's scared like crazy? The feet are back, but the nose is pushed forward, twitching with fear. Then it forces itself forward. That's how it is singing this role. You need a lovely voice and good presence for, say, the Count in 'Figaro'. For Giovanni you need all this, plus, plus, plus.'

Why does he think Don Giovanni has become his calling card, I ask? Youth, energy. 'I'm still a young person,' he says. 'I have a good enough voice. Most importantly, I have energy. I want to be youth, energy, beauty, sex on stage. That's my ideal version. It doesn't always happen.' Kwiecien studied in Poland, and then turned down several good offers of roles to enter the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Program in New York. At first he only sang small parts, and things were prickly. 'I felt I was such a great genius, that I should sing big roles,' he chuckles. 'Then slowly I realized there were other geniuses too.' He is now one of the company's most popular young baritones, and opened the 2007 season as Enrico in 'Lucia di Lammermoor' opposite Natalie Dessay.

Is the Royal Opera merely another staging post on the grinding international opera circuit for him? 'No, not at all,' he says. 'I can say that Covent Garden is the only house in Europe where I feel entirely comfortable. I've never felt this level of care anywhere else outside the U.S., with everyone looking out for me, and wanting the best for me. The Met is still my mother-house, though.'

With his looks, voice and presence, I suggest that he could consider building up his popularity outside opera. 'I used to pester my manager to get interviews and more press coverage,' he replies. 'Finally the Polish version of Cosmopolitan made me man of the month. I did an uncomfortable photo shoot with my top off, and then the journalist said he would ask me four questions. I thought they would be about opera. He started with: how often did I have sex? Then: what did I feel about sex? I asked if he had any more questions not about sex, and he said no.'

Kwiecien grins. 'That was the end of my search for popularity.'"

Warwick Thompson, "Polish Don Giovanni Turns Into Seductive Rat, Dragged to Hell",
Bloomberg, October 1, 2008