Don Giovanni – Title Role – Paris Opera

The Paris Opera opens its 23/24 season with a new production of Don Giovanni. If Mozart’s masterpiece has fascinated generations since its Prague premiere in 1787, it is not only because his score achieves an unparalleled convergence of comedy and drama, but also because its expressive force deepens tenfold the myth of Don Giovanni, the philanderer who defies God and society. Responsive to the score’s immediacy, Claus Guth imagines that Don Giovanni has been shot during his duel with the Commendatore. From then on, the libertine devotes his last hours to savouring life, whilst his faithful Leporello, an accomplice rather than a servant, seeks to soothe his pain. Disrupting the timeline, Claus Guth offers a new vision of the characters. Like a wounded beast, Don Giovanni satisfies his predatory instincts in a sensual, nocturnal pine forest, a hunting ground or an Eden forfeited for his sins.