About the Production
The legendary womanizer Don Giovanni unscrupulously and ruthlessly conquers the hearts of women. However, his misdeeds do not go unpunished when one day he challenges and kills the Commendatore.
When Don Giovanni tries to escape his pursuers and conceal his deeds, things get dicey. But in the end, he is called to account by a supernatural force and dragged to hell, while everyone else reflects on the transience of power and the justice of fate. The opera is a captivating portrayal of love, seduction, revenge and moral responsibility.
Don Giovanni
Storyline
Don Giovanni's servant Leporello wants to be a master instead of always serving. Donna Anna tries to stop the fleeing Don Giovanni.
She calls for help. Don Giovanni assures her that she will never know who he is. Donna Anna's father, the Commendatore, confronts Don Giovanni. In the ensuing battle, Don Giovanni fatally wounds the Commendatore. Donna Anna urges her fiancé Don Ottavio to come to her father's aid, but they only find the Commendatore's body. Donna Anna makes her fiancé promise to avenge her father.
Don Giovanni hopes for a new conquest. Instead, he and Leporello meet Donna Elvira, who accuses Giovanni of having deceived and seduced her with false promises. While Leporello distracts Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni is able to escape. Donna Elvira swears revenge. Masetto and Zerlina celebrate love, youth and their forthcoming wedding with their guests. Don Giovanni instructs Leporello to lead the company and especially the bridegroom into his house and entertain them; he and Zerlina will follow later. He meets Masetto's objection with a blatant threat. Masetto has to back down.
Don Giovanni invites Zerlina to his nearby castle, where he wants to marry her. Zerlina hesitates, but then agrees. The two are interrupted by Don Elvira, who warns Zerlina against the seducer and takes her with her. Don Ottavio and Donna Anna ask Don Giovanni for help in finding the Commendatore's unknown murderer. Donna Elvira appears again and warns of Giovanni's nefariousness. He suggests that Elvira is not in her right mind and follows her as she leaves. Donna Anna has recognized her father's murderer from Don Giovanni's behaviour. She once again asks Don Ottavio to avenge her.
Don Giovanni instructs Leporello to prepare a party at which he would like to make new conquests. Zerlina tries to convince Masetto that nothing has happened between her and Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni arrives and urges her to celebrate with him. Donna Anna, Donna Elvira and Don Ottavio approach in disguise. At Don Giovanni's behest, Leporello invites them to the party and Don Giovanni disappears with Zerlina. They are soon heard calling for help. Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Don Ottavio and Masetto rush to protect her. Don Giovanni presents Leporello as the guilty party. The others don't believe him, but they can't catch Don Giovanni either.
Don Giovanni forces Leporello to swap clothes with him. He wants to seduce Donna Elvira's chambermaid in disguise, meanwhile Leporello is to keep Donna Elvira busy.
Leporello takes a liking to flattering Donna Elvira. Don Giovanni meets Masetto, who is armed and looking for him, but does not recognize him in Leporello's clothes. After Giovanni has taken Masetto's weapons, he beats him up. Zerlina finds the wounded man and tends to his wounds. Leporello tries to elude Donna Elvira. In the process, he meets Donna Anna and Don Ottavio, Zerlina and Masetto, who mistake him for Don Giovanni. They want to kill him.
Don Giovanni calmly recounts his last love adventures. The Commendatore's voice warns him not to disturb the peace of the dead. Don Giovanni makes fun of him and asks Leporello to invite the Commendatore to dinner. Leporello extends the invitation and the Commendatore agrees. Don Ottavio offers Donna Anna his comfort and his hand. She asks him to understand her situation and to be patient.
Don Giovanni prepares a splendid dinner and Donna Elvira appears. She urges Don Giovanni to change his life. Giovanni mocks her. Elvira moves away, then her cry of horror is heard. The Commendatore enters and issues Don Giovanni a counter-invitation. Don Giovanni agrees. He grasps the proffered hand and is shocked by its icy coldness. The Commendatore urges Don Giovanni to repent and change his life: It is the last opportunity. Don Giovanni refuses. Voices announce his punishment. Don Giovanni collapses and Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Don Ottavio, Zerlina and Masetto arrive to bring Don Giovanni to his just punishment. They are joined only by Leporello, who tells them of Don Giovanni's fate. The company disperses, not without summing up: Their lives are always reflected in the deaths of the reprobates.
Barrie Kosky's production of Don Giovanni takes up the ambivalence between grotesque comedy and dark drama contained in the original play and looks deep into the psyche of the characters. Father-child conflicts, master-servant dynamics and the eternal search for one's own identity play an essential role in the interpretation of the characters. For Kosky, the space created by the play becomes a "laboratory for contradictory ideas about human existence without ready-made answers." The drama focuses on the deeply psychological, Dionysian and dangerous nature of the individual characters, who ultimately have to take responsibility for their own self-destructive urges.
The first chords of the overture to Don Giovanni in D minor are unmistakable - a key that was considered an expression of particularly dark and dramatic moments and which occupies a special position in Mozart's oeuvre. For example, the Requiem (KV 626), the last work before his early death, is also in D minor. The same applies to the well-known Fantasia in D minor (K. 397) and the String Quartet No. 15 (K. 421), one of the few string quartets in a minor key, which his wife Constanze claimed in a later letter that he had composed during the birth of their first son.
Mozart noted "Opera buffa" for Don Giovanni in his list of all my works on October 28, 1787 - and thus clearly assigned the work to the comic genre. A curious attribution at first glance, which has long since become the canonical subject of musicological research. Even if the tragic aspects of the opera are often emphasized today, partly due to the romantic reception of the opera, its roots in the comic genre cannot be denied: cheerful arias, puns or buffa characters such as Leporello or the "lowly" couple Zerlina and Masetto, who originate from the character typology of the so-called commedia dell'arte. But the work also exhibits characteristics of the "semiseria", the semi-tragic genre. For director Barrie Kosky, Don Giovanni thrives on this balance between comedy and tragedy.
This production is sponsored by
