Mozart is coming to the Met.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is undoubtedly one of the musical geniuses of the ages. His achievements in opera, in terms of beauty, vocal challenge, and dramatic insight, remain unsurpassed. His opera Don Giovanni is one of the most popular in the repertoire.
Mozart and his ingenious librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte held a mirror up to late 18th Century society. They especially highlighted the privileges and arrogance of the aristocracy.
Don Giovanni is the retelling of the Don Juan myth from a point of view that is neither tragic nor entirely comic but rather lighthearted, urbane, and ironic. It is the timeless story of the licentious aristocrat as he engages in his trickery and amorous pursuits. The story is full of twists and turns.
The title character and his earthy comic sidekick, Leporello experience a series of encounters that begins with a seduction then a fatal duel and continues with surprising twists and turns.
It moves back and forth between humour and sentiment among the various male and female characters, and ends with the duke being dragged down to hell. It is one of the most dramatic endings in all of opera.
Mozart originally set his opera in the city of Seville in southern Spain which was already famous in his time as a mythical world of winding streets, hot-blooded young men, and exotically beautiful women hidden behind latticed windows. The Met’s production places the action in an unnamed Spanish city in the mid-18th century.
A cast of peerless international Mozartian singers will thrill audiences worldwide. Baritone Simon Keenlyside sings the Don while Adam Plachetka is his servant Leoprello. Rolando Villazon sings Don Ottavio with Matthew Rose as the peasant Matteo.
The female conquests and attempted conquests are Hibla Gerzmava as Donna Anna, Malin Bystrom as Donna Elvira and Serena Malfi as the innocent peasant girl Zerlina. The conductor is Fabio Luisi.
Mozart’s delightful orchestral music includes challenging and thrilling operatic solos, duets, ensembles and chorus. It is an opera to joyfully lose oneself in.
No tissues needed, unless one wants to shed tears for the libertine who devotes his life to seducing women of all ages and stations in life—then is dragged into hell. Was the Don’s end just—the viewer can decide?