This is a repeating event

Sarasota Opera House - Don Giovanni 

Featured25feb7:30 pm11:00 pmSarasota Opera House - Don Giovanni Sarasota Opera House 61 N. Palm Avenue Sarasota, FL 342367:30 pm - 11:00 pm AreaSarasotaTypeOperaCost$33-145

Event Details

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte
Mozart’s most famous opera is a comic and tragic masterpiece. Set in 17th-century Spain, this tale of obsession, betrayal, crime, and retribution centers around the infamous lover Don Juan, who leaves a path of broken hearts wherever he goes.
Mozart’s Antihero Returns:
Conductor Marcello Cormio talks about Don Giovanni


This season, Mozart’s Don Giovanni returns to Sarasota Opera for the first time in twelve years. The premiere falls on February 25 and will feature David Weigel in the role of Don Giovanni, returning after a successful run in both Les pêcheurs de perles and Tosca in 2022. In the pit will be Marcello Cormio, conducting the Sarasota Opera Orchestra for the seventh season. His previous engagements here have included Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte’s two other collaborations, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte. Clearly, Cormio has an affinity with the music of Mozart.

Don Giovanni is a hugely popular opera, but re-watching it recently I was struck by how ambiguous it is. Officially, it’s referred to as a “dramma giocoso,” which in English translates to something like a “playful drama.” That’s an interesting concept. What exactly does that description mean, and how does Don Giovanni fit into that genre?

Ambiguity is at the very heart of the character of Don Giovanni. The fictional figure of Don Giovanni was already well known before Mozart and Da Ponte’s opera. He was almost a legend. The first written version of his story, from 1616, by the Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina, was very much a moral tale in which Don Giovanni appeared as an evil character who deserved to be punished. But as the story became popularized, comic elements started to creep in. The character of the servant, Leporello, is straight out of commedia dell-arte. So already there was an ambivalence there.

more

Time

February 25, 2023 7:30 pm - 11:00 pm

Location

Sarasota Opera House 61 N. Palm Avenue Sarasota, FL 34236

Other Events

Cost

$33-145