Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Jacques Offenbach
Sergei Prokofiev. Maurice Ravel
Hector Berlioz
Dmitry Shostakovich
Dmitry Shostakovich
Georges Bizet
Tatiana Kamysheva
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Giacomo Puccini
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Georges Bizet
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Modest Mussorgsky
César Cui. Igor Stravinsky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Andrei Rubtsov
Giacomo Puccini
Richard Strauss
Gaetano Donizetti
Modest Mussorgsky
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Alexei Verstovsky
Giuseppe Verdi
Anton Rubinstein
Richard Strauss
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Richard Wagner
Benjamin Britten. Camille Saint-Saëns
Mieczysław Weinberg
Gioachino Rossini
Sergei Banevich
Francesco Cilea
Alexander Ostrovsky, music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Grigory Frid. Udo Zimmermann
Umberto Giordano
Dimitry Rostovsky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Georg Philipp Telemann
Sergei Prokofiev
Giuseppe Verdi
Gioacchino Rossini
Don Giovanni, the greatest opera of all time according to Wagner, Rossini and Gounod, was extremely successful in Prague (the premiere was held on the 29th of October 1787), but in Vienna received a relatively cool reception. According to Kaiser Joseph II, the music by Mozart was “indeed overly complicated for singing”. One of the critics of the 1780s expressed a similar, far from singular, opinion the following way: “The beauty, grandeur and nobility of this music will always be no more than a lot for the chosen. This music is unfit for the ears of the majority: it just tickles the ear leaving the heart unsatisfied”.
In the 18th century, the plot about the Spanish grandee Don Giovanni was probably the most popular. The love affairs and adventures found a great response in the spirit of the century, that doubted and could laugh at anything. Numerous “dongiovannies” had been present on various European stages before, appearing as servant Harlequin in the Italian commedia dell'arte, as Hans Wurst in Germany and Austria… Audiences observed how Don Giovanni was fried in a hellish frying pan for his lecherous feats not without a gloating satisfaction.
Premiered on October 29, 1987.
Tuesday, 19:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Act I
Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant, is waiting for his master, who has entered the house of the Commendatore with intent to seduce that gentleman’s daughter, Donna Anna. The Don emerges, pursued by the young lad. Donna Anna, who is betrothed to Don Ottavio, has managed to beat off her assailant and now attempts to discover his identity. Alerted by his daughter’s cries, the Commendatore hurries to the scene, but is mortally wounded by Don Giovanni.
Leporello and his master escape. When Donna Anna, who has gone to seek help, returns accompanied by her betrothed and several servants, she finds only the dead body of her father. Donna Anna enjoins Don Ottavio to swear vengeance on her father’s murderer.
Don Giovanni and Leporello, in search of fresh adventures, come across Donna Elvira, who was seduced and abandoned by Don Giovanni and has been looking for him to get her revenge.