Don Giovanni
Opernhaus Zurich
September 23 & 27 2023
October 5, 10 & 14 2023
With their Don Giovanni, Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte have created a pinnacle work of the entire opera genre and, with the title hero, brought a character to the stage that is much greater than the role of the irresistible seducer of women, which the plot primarily assigns to him appears. Don Giovanni is the quintessential libertine, a champion of indulgence, debauchery, and excess. A border crosser par excellence who ends up going to hell. And after each performance, the question arises as to whether, after the final downfall of this hero, the loss does not outweigh the satisfaction of the just punishment that overtakes him. At the Zurich Opera House, we play Don Giovanni in the visually powerful, garishly colored direction of Sebastian Baumgarten, which was controversial when it premiered eleven years ago but has now found its way into the repertoire of our house. For his interpretation, the German director was looking for a way to make the rebellious potential of the title hero and the offensive scandalous nature of his lifestyle recognizable in the liberal perception of the 21st century. He playfully reanimates the didactic character that the Don Juan myth had in its original form and works with a multiply collaged world of images, deliberately using narrative breaks and a lot of subversive wit. The internationally sought-after soprano Golda Schultz sings the role of Donna Anna for the first time, Ruzan Mantashyan returns to the opera house as Donna Elvira and Konstantin Shushakov is our hero, Don Giovanni.