Following several widely lauded runs across Europe, the celebrated Mozart / Da Ponte trilogy by stage director Ivan Alexandre and conductor Marc Minkowski makes a triumphant return to the exquisite Royal Opera of the Château de Versailles in 2023, and you can watch it in full on medici.tv! Backed by Minkowski's marvelous Musiciens du Louvre, an expert cast breathes new life into the most famous operatic cycle this side of Wagner: Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte — the three masterpieces created by Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, all full of sparkling wit and instantly memorable arias and all counted among the crown jewels of the opera.
A tale of divine retribution with dark comic undertones, Don Giovanni (1787) depicts the debauched excesses of the titular nobleman (a superb Alexandre Duhamel), whose blithe lack of remorse for his crimes against nearly everyone he encounters — with broken romances and even murdered officials in his wake — finally catches up with him in the guise of supernatural vengeance. The cast also includes a scene-stealing Robert Gleadow as Don Giovanni's servant Leporello, as well as the versatile Iulia Maria Dan as Donna Anna, whose father's murder at the hands of Don Giovanni sets of a chain of events that will lead the libertine to his hellish fate…
Even if it's your first time watching this diabolical masterpiece, you may recognize some of its most famous moments: Leporello's "catalogue" aria in Act I, "Madamina, il catalogo è questo," in which he recounts his master's flabbergasting list of romantic conquests all over Europe; the Act I duet between Don Giovanni and the peasant woman Zerlina, "Là ci darem la mano," a simple and immediately memorable melody that has inspired dozens more composers through the centuries; and "Il mio tesoro" from Act II, in which Donna Anna's betrothed, Don Ottavio (Julien Henric), promises his beloved that he will exact vengeance on her father's murderer.
Photo © David Ruano / Liceu Opera Barcelona
