Don Giovanni (Mozart)

One of the masterpieces of the operatic repertory, Mozart's Don Giovanni opens The Royal Opera's new 2008/09 season in Francesca Zambello's flamboyant and fiery production, first seen in 2002. Even by 1787, when Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte wrote their drama giocoso for the discriminating Prague public, the exploits of the notorious young Spanish nobleman with an insatiable appetite for women had been shocking and amusing audiences for hundreds of years. Their opera is now regarded as the finest of the innumerable dramatic guises in which the legendary Don Juan appears. Sir Charles Mackerras conducts with musical direction by Antonio Pappano. British baritone Simon Keenlyside reprises the role of Don Giovanni, the charismatic narcissist who pursues, seduces, rapes and commits murder in Mozart's captivating vision of a descent into hell.