Mozart’s Don Giovanni: Opera’s Ultimate Anti-Hero

Mozart’s creation, Don Giovanni, regales the ladies

THE MET: LIVE IN HD’s third opera of the summer Encore Series is Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, airing at Orcas Center on Friday, July 6 at 7:30 pm.

Don Giovanni is one of opera’s most notorious and fascinating anti-heroes.  At the core of director Michael Grandage’s approach to the opera is the complex nature of its eponymous main character portrayed as both the image of youthful vigor and as a villainous, decadent criminal. Don Giovanni has a charismatic lust for life, but he’s not some serial seducer. –  he’s a dark, complex individual. “The starting point of Don Giovanni is death, and the brilliance of the opera is that Mozart then takes us to a piece about life. There’s something quite Shakespearean about it; a serious subject that has many opportunities for comedy, for lightness of touch, for all sorts of layers in the portrayal of the characters. “

The Met’s Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi, conducts this Encore production of Mozart’s classic opera of lust, heartbreak, and revenge, with Mariusz Kwiecien in his first Met performances of the iconic title role. Tony Award-winning director Michael Grandage makes his Met debut with this production that stars an international cast of acclaimed Mozart singers, including Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna, Mojca Erdmann as the innocent peasant girl Zerlina, Barbara Frittoli as the fiery Donna Elvira, Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio, Luca Pisaroni as Giovanni’s manservant Leporello, Joshua Bloom as Masetto, and Štefan Kocán as the vengeful Commendatore.

Tickets for Don Giovanni are $15 for adults and $11 for students,($2 off for Orcas Center members) and may be purchased on the website at www.orcascenter.org or by calling  376-2281 ext. 1 or visiting the Orcas Center Box Office during box office hours which are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from noon- 4 pm. For more information about Orcas Center 2012 season events, please visit www.orcascenter.org.