Don Giovanni – Leporello

“Chi è morto, voi o il vecchio?,” jokes the servant Leporello cryptically, after Don Giovanni has murdered “Il Commendatore”. The story of the “punished debauchee” has long since been the stuff of myth. Don Giovanni plays out in a field of tension between heaven and hell, as opposites collide in this dramma giocoso, set among amorous desires and the fall of angels. In this kaleidoscope of situations and characters, there is an absolute absence of clarity, evident alone in the fact that each of these characters lies – either to each other or to themselves. The timeless comedy motifs of role and dress change assume an oppressive ambiguity here. The master of transformation Don Giovanni, this polyerotic hedonist, is hard to fathom. In endless metamorphoses, he appears just as suddenly as he then immediately disappears again. The other characters know – they need him, as a mirror of themselves. And so for Leporello it becomes clear after his master’s death that Don Giovanni leads an eternal life and will affect ours again and again. This Don Giovanni now completes the Da Ponte cycle. “Faust” winner David Hermann stages at the Bayerische Staatsoper for the first time. General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski conducts the piece, in which Mozart threw open the doors to a new world, from which there can be no return.