Opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Text by Lorenzo da Ponte
in the German adaptation by Georg Schünemann

Don Giovanni is a Spanish nobleman who collects sexual adventures like other people collect stamps. His servant Leporello keeps meticulous records. The noblewoman Donna Anna, long since promised to another man, tempts him, as does the young peasant Zerlina on the day of her wedding. But suddenly he no longer wants to succeed: Donna Anna's conquest fails and ends with the death of her father, another beauty turns out to be the former lover Elvira and he does not reach his goal with Zerlina either. It seems that fate has turned against him and is now challenging him as he has challenged society. Full of high spirits, he invites the statue of Donna Anna's dead father to dinner - the inconceivable happens and the Commendatore actually appears. How will this trial of strength end?

This ingenious opera delights music connoisseurs and lovers, offering a perfect link between the drama of the serious operatic world of Donna Anna, her father and Don Ottavio on the one hand, and the buffonesque goings-on of ordinary people on the other, represented above all by Don Giovanni's servant Leporello. Leporello's aria in register, like Don Giovanni's champagne aria and Don Ottavio's arias, is one of the most popular numbers in the work, which is also rich in splendid ensembles. E. T. A. Hoffmann declared Mozart's "Don Giovanni" the "opera of all operas"!

Photos: Pawel Sosnowski