Organization

Singer

Baritone

Thomas Hampson

Don Giovanni

Bass

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo

Leporello

Soprano

Christine Schäfer

Donna Anna

Melanie Diener

Donna Elvira

Isabel Bayrakdarian

Zerlina

Kurt Moll

Commendatore

Tenor

Piotr Beczała

Don Ottavio

Luca Pisaroni

Masetto

Conductor

Daniel Harding

Stage director

Martin Kušej

Costume designer

Heide Kastler

Set designer

Martin Zehetgruber

Robert Lloyd

Salzburger Festspiele

Others

Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus

Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor

Orchestra

Wiener Philharmoniker

Italian

Salzburg

Austria

Großes Festspielhaus

In front of the Commendatore's house, Leporello is waiting for his master Don Giovanni. This is just another amorous adventure. Then there is screaming. Don Giovanni and Donna Anna, the adored beauty, run into the street. Anna's father, the Commander, rushes to her aid. A duel ensues between him and Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni kills the Commander and flees. He unexpectedly meets Donna Elvira, a former lover. He once promised her loyalty and then, like all the others, abandoned her. Leporello tries to placate Elvira and, to comfort her, reads her the endless catalog of Don Giovanni's lovers. Elvira swears revenge.

Don Giovanni has retired to his estate. There the last preparations for the wedding of Zerlina and Masetto are made. Very fond of the young bride, Don Giovanni tries to seduce Zerlina, which Donna Elvira thwarts at the last moment. Meanwhile, Donna Anna and her fiancé Don Ottavio arrive to ask Don Giovanni for help in finding the Commander's killer. However, when he reveals himself in a dispute with Elvira, Anna recognizes him as the culprit.
Don Giovanni is having fun at the party and tries again to seduce Zerlina. When she cries for help, Anna, Elvira and Ottavio appear in masks and challenge Don Giovanni to a fight. But he can escape.
Don Giovanni appeases Leporello, who is fed up with his master's endless affairs, with a gift of money. He's been on the trail of the next lady for a long time: this time it's Elvira's maid. Don Giovanni persuades Leporello to swap clothes with him. This trick saves his life because the peasants have gone out to kill Don Giovanni. So he manages to send her away without being recognized.

He arranges to meet Leporello at the cemetery; they want to share their experiences there. Then the marble statue of the Commendatore begins to speak. She warns Don Giovanni, who only makes fun of it and invites the statue to dinner. Leporello shudders, the statue accepts the invitation.
A festive meal is served at Don Giovanni's castle. Elvira again begs him to end his dissolute life, but Don Giovanni only scoffs. Then there's a knock at the door: the stone guest enters. He warns Don Giovanni one last time, but he defiantly refuses. Then the statue seizes him, and the fire of hell devours him.


With his opera "Don Giovanni" in 1787 Mozart wanted to build on the huge success of the "Marriage of Figaro"; the acclaimed premiere took place in Prague in October. But the work failed with the conservative Viennese audience: "Don Giovanni" was only performed fifteen times during Mozart's lifetime. The reason for the failure were the numerous innovations with which Mozart distanced himself from the operatic conventions of the time: the title role is scored for a bass and not, as was usual, for a tenor part. Instead of the usual four acts, there are only two of unusual length. The arias become the starting points and junctions of the action and are therefore no longer mere reflections of the preceding recitatives.
But what is actually new about "Don Giovanni" is the ambiguity, which makes it impossible to classify the opera into one genre: tragedy and comedy, suffering and wit run through the entire work - the boundaries between serious and cheerful blur as well as the boundaries between the social classes; finally, with the descent into hell of Don Giovanni, the representative of the nobility, Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte also let the age of the Ancien Régime go to hell.

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