At once repugnant and seductive, Don Giovanni is a man with an unquenchable thirst for women. In his amoral worldview there is no right or wrong, simply the right to take whatever and whoever takes his fancy. During the final twenty four hours of his life, three women join forces to get their revenge. Donna Anna, who was left traumatised after an unknown man forced entry into her bedroom and then murdered her father. The young Zerlina, whom the rampant Don attempts to seduce even as she celebrates her wedding. And Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni’s former mistress who burns with a desire to save him from self-destruction. He also burns in the end, but not with love.
Mozart’s opera runs the emotional gamut from exuberant happiness to the blackest hate. Its diabolical atmosphere, comic turns, keenly observed female characters and complex protagonist places it firmly among the true classics of opera.
Director John Fulljames, former artistic director of the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, sets his production in a modern luxury hotel – a society in miniature and a place for fleeting meetings during which the wealthy and rootless seek self-realisation. The music – as fickle as the arch-seducer himself, as dynamic as love and as dramatic as passion – is conducted alternately by the Finn Ville Matvejeff and the Göteborg Opera’s house conductor, Aivis Greters.
