Don Giovanni in Hell - Opéra National du Rhin (2023) - Don Giovanni aux enfers - Opéra National du Rhin (2023)

Description

World Premiere.

As part of the Musica festival.

"Repent, this is your last chance!" Don Giovanni tries to free himself from the icy embrace of the Commander's statue: "No, proud old man! - Then it is no longer time!" From all sides flames emerge and the earth begins to tremble under his feet. A chorus of demons cries out: “This horror is nothing compared to your sins, come, there are even worse!” In a cry of fear, Don Giovanni is thrown into the underworld, among the tortured souls and their executioners. His career as a libertine ended on earth, he begins a comical odyssey in the underworld of the opera in the footsteps of Dante and Orpheus, in company of cursed or demonic characters borrowed from 400 years of repertoire.
Both composer, director and video maker, the Danish artist Simon Steen-Andersen takes on a major theme that has haunted the history of opera since its origins: the descent into hell. Mischievously playing with the art of collage, deconstruction and transposition, he blends into a new creation characters, situations and music borrowed from a large corpus of works from the lyrical repertoire, from Rameau to Boito via Berlioz, with as a starting point the final scene of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Aesthetics, eras and languages intertwine during a spectacular dive into the bowels of the most infernal of machines: the theater."

More information is available on the official website of the opera house.