About the opera
- Run time: 3hrs 15min, 1 intermission
- Sung in: Italian
- Subtitles: English, Italian and other languages
- Opera house: Vienna State Opera
Mozart approached the myth of the serial seducer, who escapes all retribution except death, from a point of view that is neither tragic nor entirely comic, but rather lighthearted, urbane, and ironic. This, after all, was the age of Giacomo Casanova, who probably even attended the premiere of Don Giovanni in Prague.
We follow Don Giovanni and his servant Leporello through a series of encounters that begins with a fatal duel, moves back and forth between the humorous and the sentimental, and ends with the protagonist being dragged down to hell. Throughout, the deep humanity of the music reinforces the drama: it can even be argued that the music does half the acting.
Ticket information
- Select a date an book
- E-Ticket (Print@home)
Vienna State Opera
Opernring 2, 1010 Vienna View in Google Maps
How to get there:
Subway: U1, U2, U4 to Karlsplatz
Trams: 1, 2, D, 62, 71 to Opernring
Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado
Don Giovanni Davide Luciano
Komtur Ante Jerkunica
Donna Anna Louise Alder
Don Ottavio Bogdan Volkov
Donna Elvira Nicole Car
Leporello Peter Kellner
Zerlina Patricia Nolz
Masetto Ilja Kazakov
The son of a Salzburg court musician, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) showed prodigious ability from his earliest years. The young Mozart spent much of his childhood touring Europe with his father, performing before nobility. He went on to compose in all musical genres of his day and excelled in every one. Mozart's operas in particular represent the peak of his genius and remain unsurpassed in terms of beauty, vocal challenge and dramatic insight.
When Mozart accepted a commission from Prague’s National Theater to compose a new opera, the Don Juan figure was already a universally recognized character on the musical stage—in tragedies, comedies, and even farces. In his own text, Mozart’s librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte incorporated elements from several previous versions of the story but also provided much that was wholly original.
Lorenzo Da Ponte was the official poet of the Viennese court theater. He lead adventurous life in Venice, Vienna, and London, and later emigrated to America, where he became the first professor of Italian at New York’s Columbia College (now University).
