MET Don Giovanni

[whipped guy]

Mozart’s Don Giovanni is one of the touchstones of civilization… a work of art that embodies the whole gamut of human emotions from farce to the darkest of cataclysms. Incredibly Mozart referred to the piece as an opera buffa or comic opera. In any event, the MET’s new production as seen in the house (the performance was also broadcast in HD live) proved to be one of the most satisfying productions I have ever witnessed. The cast was strong from top to bottom and the production perfectly balanced the comic and tragic elements into a satisfying whole. In addition, the penultimate scene where our antihero is dragged down to the depths of hell was accompanied by some spectacular visual effects which produced an inferno worthy of Dante himself… and for once the epilogue-like final scene did not seem as if it were a tacked on afterthought, but rather a logical conclusion to such a Divina Commedia… or divine comedy as Mozart himself might have called it…

 

See this if you can either in the house or when the HD transmission is rebroadcast.