Berlin > Peralada
Don Giovanni – Deutsche Oper Berlin
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Dramma giocoso in two acts
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte
First performed on 29th October, 1787 at Prague
Premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 16th October, 2010
August 5, 2012
Castell de Peralada International Music Festival 2012, Girona
3 hrs 30 mins / 1 interval
In Italian language with Spanish and English surtitles
Don Giovanni
Deutsche Oper Berlin
It began its 12/12 season at the Castell de Peralada Festival. Don Giovanni inaugurated the era of the new Superintendent General Dietmar Schwarz with two performances in the magnificent adaptation of the staging that Roland Schwab had prepared. Carlos Álvarez, Robert Gleadow, Patrizia Cioffi, Ana María Martínez headed an entire cast of luxury, which together with the musical direction of Maestro Guillermo García Calvo in front of the Deutsche Oper Orchestra left a deep impression among music lovers, who will remember this event as historical in Peralada.
Performance organised by Mondigromax:
Don Giovanni
Deutsche Oper Berlin
August 5, 2012
Castell de Peralada International Music Festival 2012, Girona
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte
Musical direction: Guillermo García Calvo
Stage direction: Roland Schwab
Stage design: Piero Vinciguerra
Costumes: Renée Listerdal
Don Giovanni: Carlos Álvarez
Leporello: Robert Gleadow
Don Ottavio: Philippe Talbot
Masetto: Marko Mimika
Commendatore: Rafael Siwek
Donna Anna: Patrizia Ciofi
Elvira: Ana María Martínez
Zerlina: Jana Kuruçová
Chamber Choir Palau de la Música catalana, Barcelona
Press quote:
One of the most anticipated productions, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, premiered the day before yesterday in Peralada. The premiere was attended by the Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell and the former president of the Generalitat, Jordi Pujol. It was the first time that the Deustche Oper Berlin played in Spain, taking advantage of the occasion to celebrate its centenary with the direction of the Spaniard Guillermo García Calvo. Roland Schwab, stage manager, brought on stage a sadistic and cruel Don Giovanni with allusions to the film Funny games by Michael Hanneke.
The National Music Award Carlos Álvarez (Don Giovanni), accompanied by twenty mimes that extended the effect of the ruthlessness of the character, held the breath of the audience who saw the 100 minutes of the first part fly by. The small touches of humor, in the hands of Leoporello’s servant, the bass-baritone Robert Gleadow, stole the smiles of the spectators.
This smile, however, was erased during the second part, seeing the cruelty and contempt for women of Don Juan who destroyed everything that was put in front of him, even purity. The sordid and sadistic staging reached the limit of provocation by imitating Da Vinci‘s Last Supper in the dining room of Don Giovanni’s Palace, shortly before the arrival of the statue of the Commendatore.
Schwab did not want to show a man punished for his actions. Therefore, he skipped the morality (“the death of a sinner always reflects his life”) and modified the scene in a surprising and nihilistic ending. The curtains fell. Three hours later, petrified in their seats and still under the effect of horror, the audience still took a few seconds to react before starting to applaud. Diari de Girona, August 5, 2012| Joëlle Philippe
