Flanked by his valet Leporello who serves him not without hesitation, Don Giovanni criss-crosses Seville seducer who laughs at God and the devil. Dona Anna, engaged to Don Ottavio, refuses to give in to his advances and placed under the protection of the Commander, his father. At during a nocturnal duel, Don Giovanni mortally wounds the old man and leaves, without the slightest remorse. He has already in view of his next victims: Donna Elvira and Zerlina. But the specter of the Commander arises and invites to supper Don Giovanni. In his excessive pride, the libertine accepted. When evening comes, he shakes the hand offered to him by the statue of stone and, refusing to repent, he cannot free himself from the embrace of the Commander who leads him to burn in Hell.
What they say
My fear in approaching the implementation scene from Don Giovanni is to be overtaken by the memory of the Dom Juan that I rode in Nice, there is a Fifteen years. We must give back to Molière what he belongs. His piece created a hundred years before the opera of Mozart and da Ponte deals with issues specific to Seventeenth century. If from Tirso de Molina, the abuser of Seville is one of the most flourishing myths, I have however often struggle with readings that are make Mozart's Don Juan where, despite the intervention of the supernatural, the image of the libertine, of the seducer with a thousand and three women, is privileged. With Mozart, the challenge to the authority and the theme of the thunderstruck Atheist are not less present, the feast of stone nevertheless takes place. If the myth of Don Juan has come down to us, it is because each era has found its way of interpret it and in Don Giovanni, questions will seem very topical to us, reminding us in passing that every masterpiece is an extraordinary laboratory. Daniel Benoin
