Don Giovanni

Sometimes as a cautionary tale of a wrongdoer who eventually gets his comeuppance, sometimes as an allegory of a freedom-loving, unconventional libertine who questions the moral and religious ideas of his day: The figure of the irresistibly attractive yet unscrupulous Don Juan (or Don Giovanni) is a modern myth, among whose numerous adaptations Mozart’s "dramma giocoso" stands out.

At a rendezvous with the wealthy Donna Anna, the womanising Don Giovanni is apprehended by her outraged father, the Commendatore, who Giovanni kills in the ensuing duel. Anna and her fiancé Don Ottavio swear vengeance on the murderer. Donna Elvira, a woman who has been abandoned by Giovanni but keeps falling for his charms, is also outraged, especially when Giovanni’s servant Leporello tells her about his master’s countless conquests. When Giovanni plans to seduce the young bride Zerlina on her wedding day with Leporello’s assistance, Elvira intervenes. Eventually, she teams up with Donna Anna and Don Ottavio to put a stop to the unscrupulous womaniser. But even when Giovanni is staring death in the face, he refuses to show remorse ...

The "dramma giocoso" created by Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte perfectly blends serious and comic opera. They elevated the subject matter, which was normally given a buffoonish or moralising treatment, with psychological acuity, musical finesse and poetic wit, and depicted both the betrayed Donna Elvira and the seduced Donna Anna as serious antagonists and multilayered characters who are the equals of the irresistible Giovanni.