Don Giovanni at Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Don Giovanni, often called the opera of operas, has inspired thinkers from Lord Byron to Kierkegaard and is considered to be the most influential music drama before Wagner. This is due in large part to the main character. Don Giovanni is attractive and repulsive at the same time, a personality who with his unscrupulous honesty recklessly lives out his urges and satisfies his desires. Those who meet him find themselves in an intractable dilemma: they cannot live with Giovanni, nor can they live without him.

Mozart and Da Ponte's opera play out the conflict between reason and passion, the laws of society and the freedom of the individual. Don Giovanni finds himself at the point of intersection between the feudal society and the modern day, which is also reflected in Mozart's music, from the grand arias and expressive recitatives of baroque opera to the living personal characteristics and pioneering orchestration that points towards the 20th century.

Director Thaddeus Strassberger makes a return visit following excellent reviews for his productions of The Marriage of Figaro and The Rape of Lucretia. In the title role we have Germany's Michael Nagy, who after singing Wolfram in the Norwegian National Opera's production of Tannhäuser was invited to sing the same role at the Bayreuth Festival.