Mozart Opera DON GIOVANNI (Vanemuine Theatre)

Mozart wrote the opera Don Giovanni based on Tirso de Molina’s play The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest published in 1630, and on its main character Don Juan. Premiering in 1787 at the National Theatre of Bohemia, the opera was welcomed with open arms, although the work remained slightly incomprehensible for the eighteenth-century Viennese audience. Still, just a few decades later, the work bore the title of the greatest opera in history.

The libertine ladies’ man Don Giovanni and his trusty servant Leporello have travelled the world together, leaving thousands of broken hearts behind. Not all women are willing to accept this, and so Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina decide to expose the man’s true nature. Don Giovanni enjoys his exploits, but the trickster must bear his own cross in the end.

This centuries-old tale exchanges the sword for a cell phone, so the archetypal anti-hero could once again bear the responsibility for his actions.

Don Giovanni has previously been brought to the stage of Vanemuine Theatre just once, in 1990. This version has been brought to the stage by the drama director Elmo Nüganen, for whom it is his first contact with Vanemuine, although not his first with Mozart: in 1994, he brought The Marriage of Figaro to the stage of Pärnu Opera.

For the work as the Music Director and Conductor of Don Giovanni, Risto Joost received the Estonian Theatre Award for Music in 2022. For the role of Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Märt Jakobson received the Estonian Theatre Award for Music in 2022.

Premiere on 27 November 2021 in the small building of Vanemuine Theatre.