Film screening from Festival d’Aix en Provence (2017)
Opera in two acts. Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
First performed on 29 October 1787 at the State Theater of Prague.
Don Giovanni – Philippe Sly
Leporello – Nahuel di Pierro
Donna Anna – Eleonora Buratto
Don Ottavio – Pavol Breslik
Donna Elvira – Isabel Leonard
Hair & Make-up – Cécile Kretschmar
Masetto – Krzysztof Baczyk
Il Commendatore – David Leigh
Conductor – Jérémie Rhorer
Stage Director – Jean-François Sivadier
Stage Designer – Alexandre de Dardel
Costumes Designer – Virginie Gervaise
Lighting Designer – Philippe Berthomé
Choreographer – Johanne Saunier Zerlina Julie Fuchs
Orchestra – Le Cercle de l’Harmonie
Chorus – English Voices
Production – Camera Lucida
Realization – Philippe Béziat
Duration – 2h 54mins
Language – Italian
Subtitles – French
Channel – Culture box
Date – July 10, 2017
New production of the Festival d’Aix en Provence
In coproduction with the Opéra National de Lorraine, the Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
A thousand and three female conquests in Spain alone! Don Juan has been alternately portrayed as a sex addict, a champion of freedom or as a “great lord but wicked man”. Of all the manifestations of this myth, Mozart’s opera seems the most timeless thanks to the clash it creates between laughter and terror, between joyful comedy and metaphysical fable. From the opening notes of this comic opera, where the terrible grandeur of the music of the Commendatore turns into the frantic race of the seducer, contrast reigns supreme. And the libertine dances above the abyss: Don Giovanni will only be stopped by the stone statue that invites him to a banquet at which no earthly food is eaten. More than two centuries after it was first created, this highpoint of the operatic canon – which has historic links with the Festival d’Aix – retains all its power. In this new production, the energy of a young cast enthused by the ultra-theatrical staging of Jean-François Sivadier and the ultra-Mozartian conducting of Jérémie Rhorer, make for a dazzling feast of seduction and desire. And a headlong rush into the abyss.
