Don Giovanni

Act 1

Leporello, Don Giovanni's servant, complains of his lot. He is keeping watch while Don Giovanni rapes or seduces the Commendatore's daughter, Donna Anna. When the two appear, Giovanni is masked and Donna Anna is holding onto his arm. Something has happened and she insists on knowing his true identity; before he can break free from her grasp she cries for help. The Commendatore appears and forces Giovanni to fight a duel. Donna Anna flees into the house. Giovanni kills the Commendatore with his sword and escapes with Leporello. Anna, returning with her fiancé, Don Ottavio, is horrified to see her father lying dead in a pool of his own blood. She makes Ottavio swear vengeance against the unknown murderer.

Giovanni is immediately attracted to peasant girl Zerlina when he sees her, and he attempts to remove the jealous Masetto by offering to host a wedding celebration at his castle. On realizing that Giovanni means to remain behind with Zerlina, Masetto becomes angry. Don Giovanni and Zerlina are soon alone and he immediately begins his seductive arts.
Elvira arrives and thwarts the seduction. She leaves with Zerlina. Ottavio and Anna enter, plotting vengeance on the still unknown murderer of Anna's father. Anna, unaware that she is speaking to the attacker, pleads for Giovanni's help. Giovanni, relieved that he is unrecognised, readily promises it, and asks who has disturbed her peace. Before she can answer, Elvira returns and tells Anna and Ottavio that Giovanni is a false-hearted seducer. Giovanni tries to convince Ottavio and Anna that Elvira is insane. As Giovanni leaves, Anna suddenly recognizes him as her father's murderer. Ottavio, not convinced, resolves to keep an eye on his friend.

At one of Don Giovanni's many parties, Leporello distracts Masetto by dancing with him, while Don Giovanni leads Zerlina offstage to a private room. When Zerlina screams for help, Don Giovanni tries to fool the onlookers by dragging Leporello into the room and threatening to kill him for assaulting Zerlina. But Ottavio produces a pistol, and the three guests unmask and declare that they know all. But despite being denounced on all sides, Don Giovanni escapes – for the moment.

Act 2

Leporello threatens to leave Giovanni, but his master calms him with a peace offering of money. Wanting to seduce Elvira's maid, Giovanni persuades Leporello to exchange cloak and hat with him. Elvira comes to her window. Seeing an opportunity for a game, Giovanni hides and sends Leporello out in the open dressed as Giovanni. From his hiding place Giovanni sings a promise of repentance, expressing a desire to return to her, while Leporello poses as Giovanni and tries to keep from laughing. Elvira is convinced and descends to the street. Leporello, continuing to pose as Giovanni, leads her away to keep her occupied while Giovanni serenades her maid with his mandolin.

Before Giovanni can complete his seduction of the maid, Masetto and his friends arrive, searching for Giovanni with the intent of killing him. Giovanni (dressed as Leporello) convinces the posse that he also hates Giovanni, and joins the hunt. After cunningly dispersing Masetto's friends, Giovanni takes Masetto's weapons away, beats him up, and runs off, laughing. Zerlina arrives and consoles the bruised and battered Masetto.

Leporello abandons Elvira. As he tries to escape, Ottavio arrives with Anna, consoling her in her grief. Just as Leporello is about to slip through the door, which he has difficulty finding, Zerlina and Masetto open it and, seeing him dressed as Giovanni, catch him before he can escape. When Anna and Ottavio notice what is going on, all move to surround Leporello, threatening him with death. Elvira tries to protect the man who she thinks is Giovanni, claiming that he is her husband and begging for pity. The other four are resolved to punish the traitor, but Leporello removes his cloak to reveal his true identity. He begs everyone's forgiveness and, seeing an opportunity, runs off.

Leporello tells Don Giovanni of his brush with danger, and Giovanni taunts him, saying that he took advantage of his disguise as Leporello by trying to seduce one of Leporello's girlfriends. But the servant is not amused, suggesting it could have been his wife, and Don Giovanni laughs aloud at his servant's protests. The voice of the statue warns Giovanni that his laughter will not last beyond sunrise. At the command of his master, Leporello reads the inscription upon the statue's base: "Here am I waiting for revenge against the sacrilegious one who gave me death". The servant trembles, but the unabashed Giovanni orders him to invite the statue to dinner, threatening to kill him if he does not. Leporello makes several attempts to invite the statue to dinner but for fear cannot complete the task. It falls upon Don Giovanni himself to complete the invitation, thereby sealing his own doom. Much to his surprise, the statue nods its head and responds affirmatively.

Giovanni revels in the luxury of a great meal, served by Leporello, and musical entertainment during which the orchestra plays then-contemporary late-18th-century operatic music. Elvira appears, saying that she no longer feels resentment for Giovanni, only pity. Surprised by her lack of hatred, Giovanni asks what it is that she wants, and she begs him to change his life. Giovanni taunts her and then turns away, praising wine and women as the "support and glory of humankind". Hurt and angered, Elvira gives up and leaves. A moment later, her scream is heard from outside the walls of the palace, and she returns only to flee through another door. Giovanni orders Leporello to see what has upset her; upon peering outside, the servant also cries out, and runs back into the room, stammering that the statue has appeared as promised. An ominous knocking sounds at the door. Leporello, paralyzed by fear, cannot answer it, so Giovanni opens it himself, revealing the statue of the Commendatore. The Commendatore offers a last chance to repent, but Giovanni adamantly refuses. The statue sinks into the earth and drags Giovanni down with him. Hellfire, and a chorus of demons, surround Don Giovanni as he is carried below.

Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Donna Elvira, Zerlina, and Masetto arrive, searching for the villain. They find instead Leporello hiding under the table, shaken by the supernatural horror he has witnessed. Giovanni is dead. Anna and Ottavio will marry when Anna's year of mourning is over; Elvira will spend the rest of her life in a convent; Zerlina and Masetto will finally go home for dinner; and Leporello will go to the tavern to find a better master. The concluding ensemble delivers the moral of the opera – "Such is the end of the evildoer: the death of a sinner always reflects his life".

Team and cast Holland

Conductor Hernán Schvartzman

Stage director Ana d'Anna

Stage design and lighting design Ana d'Anna

Costumes María Jaunarena

Don Giovanni Martijn Cornet

Commendatore - Masetto Maximiliano Michailovsky

Donna Anna Macarena Valenzuela

Don Ottavio Carlos Ullan

Donna Elvira Mariana Carnovali

Leporello Pol Gonzalez

Zerlina Laura Polverini

Chorus Haags Vocaal Ensemble

Musical rehearsal chorus MaNOj Kamps/ Béni Csillag

Scenical rehearsal chorus Pomme van Vught, met dank aan Willy Verkuil

Orchestra of OPERA2DAY on classical instruments

1st violin Monica Waisman (concertmaster), Rebecca Huber, Joseph Tan, Jacek Kurzydlo, Tomoe Mihara, Louella Alaitiit

2nd violin Kayo Saito, Luca Rizzello, Lucía Giraudo, Annegret Hoffman, Gabrielle Wunsch, Rachel Stroud

Viola Martina Forni, Seung Rok Baek, John Ma, Agnieszka Swiatkowska

Cello Nina Diehl, Anton Baba, Nika Zlataric

Double bass Tomoki Sumiya, Chen Goldsobel

Flute Carolina Perez Bergliaffa, Melody Yeomans

Oboe Diego Nadra, Antonia Sanchez Medioli

Clarinet Michal Lewkowicz, Thomas Carroll

Bassoon Dana Karmon. Gergo Farkas

Horn Laurens Otto, Gijs Laceulle

Trumpet Gabor Hegyi, Wim de Vries

Trombone Kate Rocket, Anton van Houten, Dominic Sierat

Timpani Orlando Aguilar

Fortepiano Manuel de Olaso

Mandoline Oman Kaminsky