The Royal Opera’s 2019/20 Season opens with Don Giovanni

DON GIOVANNI_ROH_COVENT GARDEN,Don Giovanni; Mariusz Kwiecien,Leporello; Ildebrando D’Arcangelo,Donna Anna; Rachel Willis_Sorensen,Don Ottavio; Pavol Breslik,Donna Elvira;Hrachuhi Bassenz,Zerlina; Chen Reiss,Masetto; Anatoli Sivko,The Commendatore;Willard White,Conductor; Marc Minkowski,

Erwin Schrott returns to The Royal Opera as the seductive Don Giovanni!

Kasper Holten’s visually striking production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni opens The Royal Opera’s 2019/20 Season, returning for its third revival since its 2014 premiere. Featuring a spectacular set designed by the award-winning Es Devlin, ingenious video designs by Luke Hall and beautiful costumes by Anja Vang Kragh the production accentuates the beauty and invention of Mozart’s dazzling tragicomedy and casts the impulsive and charismatic title character as an artist who thrives on an audience enticed by his creative gifts.

Don Giovanni is the second of Mozart’s landmark collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (after Le nozze di Figaro and before Così fan tutte) and has beguiled and entranced audiences since its premiere in Prague in 1787. Perfectly poised between tragedy and comedy, the opera combines glorious music with fascinating characters, not least the seductive and complex anti-hero.

Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott returns to The Royal Opera as the seductive Don Giovanni, while Italian bass Roberto Tagliavini makes his Company debut as his long-suffering servant Leporello. Swedish soprano Malin Byström returns as Donna Anna, the role she sang in the production’s premiere in 2014, appearing alongside German tenor Daniel Behle (except 3 and 10 October) and Italian tenor Emanuele d’Aguanno (3 and 10 October; Royal Opera debut) as Don Ottavio, English mezzo-sopranoChristine Rice as Donna Elvira and Croatian baritone Leon Košavić as Masetto. The role of the Commendatore will be sung on 13, 16, 19 and 28 September and 3 October by British bass Brindley Sherratt and on 22 and 25 September and 8 and 10 October by Greek bass Petros Magoulas in his Royal Opera debut. Louise Alder makes her Royal Opera House main stage debut as Zerlina, following her Royal Opera debut in 2015 at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe as Eurydice in Rossi’s Orpheus. German conductor Hartmut Haenchen conducts all performances.

Don Giovanni opens on 16 September 2019, with subsequent performances on 19, 22, 25 and 28 September, and 3, 8 and 10 October 2019. The Royal Opera presents a Schools’ Matinee performance of Don Giovanni on 13 September 2019, supported byThe Taylor Family Foundation. Don Giovanni will be shown live in UK cinemas on Tuesday 7 October with an encore screening on Sunday 13 October. The production will also be broadcast to cinemas around the world.

DON GIOVANNI

16, 19 and 25 September and 8 and 10 October 2019 at 7pm
22 September 2019 at 6pm
28 September and 3 October 2019 at 12pm

Co-production with Israeli Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, and Houston Grand Opera
Sung in Italian with English surtitles

Credits

Music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto Lorenzo da Ponte
Director Kasper Holten
Set designer Es Devlin
Video designer Luke Halls
Costume designer Anja Vang Kragh
Lighting designer Bruno Poet
Choreographer Signe Fabricius