Don Giovanni

New Production
Cincinnati Opera, 2024

CREDITS

Director: Alison Moritz
Conductor: Dame Jane Glover
Scenic Design: Philip Whitcomb
Costume Design: Philip Whitcomb
Lighting Design: Thomas Hase
Photo Credit: Philip Groshong

QUOTES

Moritz’s production “enthralled the opening night audience, who audibly gasped at Don Giovanni’s cruelty and laughed out loud in lighter moments.” (Cincinnati Business Courier)

The [final] scene was positively bone-chilling, and one of the most inventive I’ve ever seen.” (Cincinnati Business Courier)

The production, which was staged by Alison Moritz, was seamlessly updated to early 20th-century Seville. There were no updated gimmicks; the creative team allowed the production to remain true to its original spirit.” (Cincinnati Business Courier)

There are a number of deft touches in the stage action suggesting that the Don’s joy in conquest is superficial, hiding a pathology.” (Cincinnati Upstage Blog)

FROM ALISON

How can modern audiences walk the delicate tightrope of enjoying the comedy and pathos in this magnificent work without feeling like we’re spending three hours glorifying a first rate cad? After all, contemporary American society has moved so far away from many of the given circumstances of the operatic canon, including the infamous Don Giovanni. When Artistic Director Evans Mirageas invited me to reconsider this masterpiece, I wanted to find a way to walk that tightrope, allowing us to delight in what’s immediate and recognizable about this world and its characters, but also to enjoy the romance of nostalgia and escaping into a time apart from our own.

In this case, designer Philip Whitcomb and I had the added challenge of re-imagining an existing Lucia set, transforming it from Scotland to Seville! The existing walls gave us boundaries when it came to period, and we pushed the costuming into the world of Merchant Ivory – romanticism with a sense that the old world is tinged with seediness and even regret, and it may be time to make way for the new.