Presents:

Don Giovanni

Volksoper Wien

Tuesday 01 December 2015 at 7 PM
Thursday 03 December 2015 at 7 PM
Wednesday 09 December 2015 at 7 PM
Saturday 12 December 2015 at 7 PM
Tuesday 15 December at 7PM

Duration: 3 Hours 15 Minutes, Intermissions: 1

Mozart’s masterpiece “Don Giovanni” is surely one of the richest works within the operatic repertoire: both comic and tragic, ranging from ballads to cloaks-and-daggers, a moral portrait of its time and yet simultaneously a timeless piece of world theatre … The stage director Achim Freyer sees Don Giovanni
as an archetype: „the great driving force, strong and inescapable,“ bringing movement and light into our lives.

In German language with German surtitles

(c) barbara pálffy / volksoper

Cast

• Directing, stage design, lighting design and costumes Achim Freyer
• Chorus Master Holger Kristen
• Conductor Jac van Steen
• Don Giovanni Josef Wagner
• Komtur Andreas Mitschke
• Donna Anna Kristiane Kaiser
• Don Ottavio Jörg Schneider
• Donna Elvira Caroline Melzer
• Leporello Mischa Schelomianski
• Masetto Ben Connor
• Zerlina Anita Götz

(c) barbara pálffy / volksoper

“Freyer’s Bewildering “Don Giovanni” Pulls Together Brilliantly in Vienna […] Jac van Steen led a beautiful, noble, wise performance of the score. Even where tempi did not tally with my inclination, I was won over by his generous musicianship. There was no ideological point-scoring here, but a clearly profound knowledge of the score, communicated with the ease – the apparent lack of any communicative act – that only the finest of Mozartians can command. His partners in crime, the Volksoper Orchestra, played beautifully throughout. […] The cast threw themselves into Freyer’s concept with enthusiasm, their clowning convincing throughout. At the centre, in the title role, stood an undeniably seductive performance by Josef Wagner, his gliding across stage at one with his silkiness of vocal delivery. I should very much like to see and hear more from him. Jörg Schneider’s beauty of tone almost made me forget my qualms about the inclusion of both of Ottavio’s arias. Kristiane Kaiser occasionally had trouble with Anna’s coloratura, but for the most part performed more than creditably; much the same might be said, albeit with greater stage ‘attitude’, for Esther Lee’s Elvira. (I should certainly never have guessed that the latter was a late stand-in for an indisposed Caroline Melzer.) Mischa Schelomianski seemed very much in his element with Leporello: a figure of fun in the best sense, perhaps a figure ‘for’ fun? Ben Connor and Anita Götz ably delineated the more plebeian roles of Zerlina and Masetto; they stand, quite rightly, as the heirs to Viennese popular theatre, whilst, perhaps ironically, attaining a dramatic seriousness of their own. Andreas Mitschke proved a suitably imposing Commendatore. More than usual, though, the claim of a company performance won out. It had to – and how!”

(Seen and heard international, Walter Berry)

(c) barbara pálffy / volksoper

Volksoper Wien

Währinger Straße 78
A-1090 Vienna
Info: +43/1/514 44-3670
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