DON GIOVANNI

“Who’s dead, you or the old man?” Leporello’s terrified question to Don Giovanni following his duel with the Commendatore seems farcical, and yet there is a lingering sense of doubt. At the beginning, an elderly man is killed by a younger one who then seems to want to escape him; and at the end, the older man returns and leads the younger one to his death. What is the connection between these two beings – one seemingly an extension of the other, like the stages of life? More than ever, our consciences are torn between two facets of the seducer: the libertine with his appealing charisma, and the punished reprobate whose infamy reverberates on us all. But what does it mean today to be dragged down into hell? In a bed of love and agony, a heart beats, too weak, too strong, cast on a delirious journey to the edge of limbo. This eighth production of the Festival’s most emblematic work is an opportunity for Sir Simon Rattle to return to Mozart at the head of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, with a sumptuous cast led by Andrè Schuen; and, renowned for his insightful adaptations of the classics, English director Robert Icke will be making his operatic debut.