Video: Get A First Look at Mozart's DON GIOVANNI at the Canadian Opera Company

Enjoy a first look at the 'mind-bending' new production of Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI, on now at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts!

One of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most powerful and brilliant operas is transformed into a spectacle for the senses and a deeply thought-provoking experience in the Canadian Opera Company's winter production of Don Giovanni. The twisted comedic masterpiece thrusts audiences into the darkly glamorous world of entitled aristocracy, where the womanizing title character has grown used to getting away with murder–that is, until his latest seduction spirals out of control and leads to an actual murder, setting off a supernatural chain of events that sees karma come calling. 

British director Amy Lane is widely known for her thoughtful and innovative approach to staging classic operas. As associate director in Toronto, Lane takes over the creative reins from the production's original director, Kasper Holten, offering a nuanced glimpse inside the chaotic mind of one of opera's most notorious predators. Award-winning set designer Es Devlin has worked with some of the entertainment industry's biggest stars, from Beyoncé to U2 and, here, she has created an Escher-like web of revolving rooms that emulates the title character's spiralling descent. Eye-popping video projections from Luke Halls and projection associate Gareth Shelton combine with vivid colour from revival lighting designer John-Paul Percox, based on the original concept from Bruno Poet, to infuse the stage with both drama and dread as the story progresses.

Don Giovanni was the second of Mozart's enormously successful collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Its score is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time and its dramatic pull featuring prominently in the Oscar-winning film Amadeus, as well as the television drama Hannibal. COC Music Director Johannes Debus expertly leads the COC Orchestra through the opera's thrilling musical complexities, with Price Family Chorus Master Sandra Horst leading the Dora Award-winning COC Chorus.

Canadian bass-baritone Gordon Bintner returns to the COC as Don Giovanni, following his leading role last winter in the company's “sublime” (NEXT) production of The Marriage of Figaro. Bintner has been a rising star on the international stage in recent years and he is joined by two renowned sopranos making their COC debuts: Mané Galoyan of Armenia, bringing her “radiant presence” (The Guardian) to the role of the Commendatore's daughter, Donna Anna, and Anita Hartig of Romania, who brings her “superb dramatic instincts” (New York Classical Review) to the role of Donna Elvira.

The opera features two additional Ensemble Studio graduates, with award-winning mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh singing Zerlina, and bass-baritone Joel Allison taking on the role of her fiancé, Masetto. American tenor Ben Bliss returns to Toronto as Donna Anna's fiancé Don Ottavio, following his last appearance “at his lyric best” (Toronto Star) in the COC's Cosi fan tutte (2019). Italian bass-baritone Paolo Bordogna, “one of the most esteemed specialists in the buffo/comic repertoire,” (OperaWire) makes a COC debut as Leporello, servant and sidekick to Don Giovanni and American bass David Leigh completes the cast as the retired army general, the Commendatore.

Don Giovanni is sung in Italian and presented by the COC with English SURTITLES.

Don Giovanni is a co-production of Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Gran Theatre del Licieu; The Israeli Opera; and Houston Grand Opera.

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