Don Giovanni

Synopsis

Written shortly after The Marriage of Figaro. Based on the famous legend of Don Juan the master seducer from whom no woman can be considered safe. Don Giovanni pursues, seduces, rapes and murders and in the climax is pulled to hell by a stone statue of one of his victims come to life - he remains unrepentant. His servant Leporello witnesses all his masters wrongs. There is also a rarely performed opera of the same name (and story) by Giuseppe Gazzaniga which was first performed in 1786, eight months before Mozart's version.

Our Review:

7 November 2010

ENO’s new Don Giovanni is another example of a respected theatre director failing to rise to the challenge of breathing new life into a standard of the operatic repertoire.  It’s becoming a familiar story at the Coliseum.  

Ideas that might have blossomed in the hands of an experienced opera director fall limp for Rufus Norris, best known for recent West End productions of Cabaret and Festen. 

De-glamourising the Don is a good move but the opportunity to show him as a vicious exploiter is missed.  Iain Paterson’s seducer, a dead-ringer for Jonathan Ross with floppy hair and a natty suit, is more louche than depraved.  Projections during the Catalogue Aria show his potential as a rapist of old ladies and children (nowadays a romanticised portrayal of the famous rake would hardly be acceptable) but this concept is not followed through and it’s typical of a directorial te...

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Latest User Review

ravenwoman - 30 November 2010:

I'm a regular to the ENO and thought the production was marvellous (although this may in part have been due to my extremely low expectations having read the reviews beforehand). The rest of my party also loved it. I thought the translation was excellent, as clearly did the rest of the audience - and I have to add it was the most electric audience atmosphere I've ever encountered at an opera. The enjoyment was virtually palpable. To the guy who prefers Da Ponte: why were you at the ENO?? Opera should be for entertaining the masses, as originally intended, not for pandying to libretto-snobs like you - go back to the RHO!...

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