Don Giovanni

Kasper Holten’s beautiful production captures the debauchery of desire, while also illuminating the sharp emotional tension that cuts through Mozart’s darkest opera. Acclaimed designer Es Devlin’s spectacular visuals blur the boundaries between reality and the twisting interior world of the infamous Don.

Following the popular premiere of Mozart’s previous opera, The Marriage of Figaro, in Prague, the theatre’s impresario sought to commission the composer for a new opera. Don Giovanni was the second collaboration with Mozart’s would-be longtime librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, who decided to adapt an existing libretto on the subject of Don Juan, the notorious Spanish libertine of fiction. For Mozart, Don Giovanni was an unusually intense work, especially following the comedic fare of Figaro – still, the opera became another great success in Prague, remaining in repertory there for many years. For more on the Mozart - Da Ponte collaboration, visit our Mozart Essentials page.

The character of Don Juan first appeared in the 1630 play El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest) by Tirso de Molina, about a man whose life is devoted to seduction. Today, the name has become synonymous with any womanizer, the figure of Don Juan inspiring countless iterations, including Mozart’s infamous Don. Other popular adaptations of the story include Molière’s 1665 play Dom Juan, Lord Byron’s satirical epic poem Don Juan and several films ranging from Adventures of Don Juan with Errol Flynn (1948) and In Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973), featuring Brigitte Bardot as a female version of the character, to Don Juan DeMarco (1995), starring Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando, and Don Jon (2013), with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the title character. Many others have been influenced by the subject of Don Juan, too, including the writers Jane Austen, Søren Kierkegaard and Albert Camus, the composer Jean Sibelius (whose second movement of his Symphony No. 2 is based on the play’s climax) and filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.