Don Giovanni: Oper von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Theatertag)

In the organizer's words:

Once a month, Theater Heilbronn offers the opportunity to attend a performance at half price on Theater Day.

The Spanish nobleman Don Giovanni knows only one pleasure: Women. Whether blond or brunette, young or old - he never misses an opportunity to pursue and seduce them. As soon as he has succeeded, he looks for a new victim. Once the lady is in firm hands, his hunting instinct is ignited even more. He has just set his sights on another object of desire: Donna Anna, the Commendatore's daughter, who is engaged to Don Ottavio. This does not stop the womanizer from entering her bedroom. Donna Anna calls for help, her father rushes over and is killed in a duel by Don Giovanni, who manages to escape unrecognized. Don Ottavio and Donna Anna swear revenge on the murderer.

Meanwhile, he plunges into new adventures, completely unmoved by the blood on his hands. Donna Elvira, a lover he has abandoned and whom he unexpectedly meets again, only disturbs him. Don Giovanni leaves it to his servant Leporello, who keeps a register of all his master's conquests, to read them to the humiliated woman. He mingles with a peasant wedding party because he has taken a fancy to the beautiful bride Zerlina. But before Zerlina succumbs to his seductive powers, Elvira intervenes and warns her against the libertine. Donna Anna and Don Ottavio are also guests at the party and recognize the Commendatore's murderer. However, he manages to escape. Even in distress, Don Giovanni leaves nothing to chance, amuses himself with Leporello's lover and boasts to his servant about his conquest - right in front of a statue in the cemetery erected in honor of the murdered Commendatore. When he then invites the man of stone to a banquet and thus disturbs the peace of the dead, he has finally overstepped the mark.

The Don Juan story, which goes back to the old Spanish folk tale of the lecherous libertine Don Juan Tenorio, has inspired countless artists of all genres. When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was commissioned by the Prague impresario to write a new opera for the Count Nostitz's theater in the spring of 1787 after the brilliant success of "The Marriage of Figaro", Mozart turned to this material. The premiere took place just six months later, on October 29, 1787, and legend has it that the sheet music was still wet with ink when the musicians and singers received it for rehearsal. The premiere, conducted by the composer, was a huge success. Mozart and da Ponte combined the highs and lows of the human condition, tragedy and comedy in this operatic thriller in the most excellent way. The music draws psychologically exciting characters and unites Eros and death in its passionate drama. Richard Wagner reverently called "Don Giovanni" the "opera of all operas" - a reputation that still precedes this masterpiece today.