Don Giovanni

About

The National Theatre Chorus and Orchestra
The Ballet of the National Theatre Opera

W. A. Mozart decided to write an opera for Prague after the local audience responded to his Le nozze di Figaro with a far greater verve than their counterparts had in Vienna. He and the Italian poet and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte chose as the subject for the new piece the life and death of the great libertine, which has been treated in numerous works of art. Mozart’s account remains among the most feted.

The current production of Don Giovanni, performed at the Estates Theatre, is not only a tribute to Mozart himself, it also pays homage to two towering figures of Czech and global theatre – the stage director Václav Kašlík and the designer Josef Svoboda, under whom it was created back in 1969. The production’s 2006 revival is the work of the director Jiří Nekvasil, the set designer Daniel Dvořák and the costume designer Theodor Pištěk, who also worked with Miloš Forman on his Oscar-winning film Amadeus. Don Giovanni is one on the most frequently performed and most popular of the National Theatre Opera repertoire titles.

Photos from the production: Miroslav Pavlovič