The Paris National Opera opens its season with “Don Giovanni”, directed by Claus Guth, premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2008. Swedish baritone Peter Mattei is impressive in his accuracy and presence.
Wounded, he wanders in the forest in search of “fresh flesh”. Like a predator sensing the end coming, Don Giovanni continues to hunt instinctively. The indescribable seducer is in a compulsive flight. His alter ego Leporello, played by Alex Esposito, drugged and torn between duty and the desire to emancipate himself, friend and valet, seeks the emergency exit. Don Giovanni in Claus Guth’s production, premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2008, is a wounded, stubborn man, obsessed with his desires until death. The slender Swedish baritone Peter Mattei plays Don Giovanni, at peace with himself, certain of his rights. His conquests should, according to him, thank him and not pursue him with their grievances. He has 2065 conquests. And that night, he plans to add several more to the table. Leporello keeps an eye on things.
God, society and the void
So what are Donna Elvira, Donna Anna and Zerlina looking for in Don Giovanni? By pursuing him in the forest, consumed by resentment, they let out the emptiness within them, this lack which irresistibly attracts them to the one who seduced and abandoned them. “Who can tell me where this barbarian is, whom I loved for my shame and who betrayed me? Ah! If I find the ungodly and he does not return to me; I’m going to make a massacre, I’m going to rip out his heart”, promises Donna Anna, played by Gaëlle Arquez, who does not despair of seeing her love repent and return to her. Why does Zerlina abandon her newly married husband Masetto while swearing loyalty to him? Why does Donna Anna keep Ottavio, her fiancé, at a safe distance?
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Agonizing, Don Giovanni still has this magnetic power within him. In this work by Mozart, created in Prague in 1787, to a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, the characters are all in search of themselves. As they survey the setting, a rotating forest of fir trees, they exhibit their gaping wounds, a dizzying solitude. Solitary, they are even accompanied.
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He is ready to face death. Courageously. Don Giovanni refuses the help of his valet. He is at peace. He intends to enjoy life until the last second. Before returning to his final resting place. Peter Mattei gives this moment a poetic grace, enhanced by snow imbued with purity. A moving sincerity. Don Giovanni Claus Guth version, a dizzying quest, an uneven distribution.
Form
Title : Don Giovanni, in two acts
Dates: Until October 12 at the Opéra Bastille
Music : Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Booklet: Lorenzo Da Ponte
Musical direction: Antonello Manacorda alternating with Giancarlo Rizzi
Conductor of choirs: Alessandro Di Stefano
Staging: Clauss Guth
Distribution : Peter Mattei alternating with Kyle Ketelsen, Adela Zaharia, Julia Kleiter, Ben Bliss, Cyrille Dubois, John Relyea, Gaëlle Arquez, Tara Erraught, Alex Esposito, Bogdan Talos, Guilhem Worms, Fing Fang and Marine Chagon.