Don Giovani is hot to trot at The Sage, Gateshead, next month thanks to plenty of North-East talent and enthusiasm. Viv Hardwick reports on this memorable project.

NORTH-EAST born Sir Thomas Allen is directing one of the country's hottest young baritones, Christopher Maltman, in an eagerly anticipated version on Don Giovanni at Gateshead's Sage next month.

With Sir Tom rated as one of the best 'Dons' of all time and Maltman, recently described as 'the Daniel Craig of opera', in his debut role there is plenty of interest in the production being staged by The Samling Foundation, which supports the careers of the world's budding international singers.

Maltman's wife Leigh Woolf (who plays Zerlina) hails from Great Ayton - where her parents still live and the couple were married in Helmsley - so North Yorkshire is very special to them.

The rest of the cast are all young international opera stars. Lisa Milne, who debuts in the role of Donna Elivra, flies in direct from starring at The Met in New York.

They represent the fresh new face of opera and all, over the past ten years, have been through one of The Samling Foundation's masterclass programmes. The foundation is a small but very professional North-East organisation which is determined to operate at a world class level.

Putting on an opera of this scale and calibre, with no public funding, is a considerable achievement and further lifts the reputation of the region's classical music programme.

The cast are due to arrive in the region on Sunday and begin three weeks of rehearsals the following day. The first public performance is on Tuesday, June 5, with the opera premiering to 1,500 North-East schoolchildren at a sponsored performance on June 4.

There's also a four-month education programme that's running in tandem with the opera production, taking 40 teenagers from around the region on a creative journey of a lifetime - experiencing opera from inside out - resulting in a performance, their own spin on the story of Don Giovanni, at The Sage on June 8 in Hall One. Who says opera's not hip.

Financial support for the concerts has come from the Northern Rock Foundation, The Gillian Dickinson Trust, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Peter Moores Foundation, The Barbour Trust.

Public performances of Don Giovanni run at the Sage, Gateshead on June 5, 7 and 9, in Hall One at 7pm.

l Composed by Mozart, Don Giovanni is the story of an irresistible libertine - an unscrupulous free spirit around whom no woman is safe.

Mozart's genius embraces dark comedy and tragic loss in some of the most beautiful music ever heard. Watch out, too, for the Northern Sinfonia Chorus and Northern Sinfonia conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, in what promises to be one of the year's operatic highlights.

Tickets: £7-£28. Box Office: 0191-443-4661.