On April 25th at 8 pm and April 26th at 3 pm, do not miss Don Giovanni, Mozart’s opera. Director Jean-Yves Ruf invites the musicians from the Concert de la Loge de Julien Chauvin to a unique stage design.
Don Giovanni burns with desire and challenge more than pleasure. Jean-Yves Ruf presents an intense staging here, carried by young talents and the musicians from the Concert de la Loge, for a lively, disturbing, and terribly contemporary version.
Flames ignite bodies and hearts, as Don Giovanni consumes and exhausts women in a frantic race that makes him feel alive. But in these endless conquests, is it not, more than enjoyment, the avid search for challenges that excites him? Is he not the mirror of our addiction to desire, excitement, and consumption that leads us towards the abyss?
For his staging of this essential Mozart opera, Jean-Yves Ruf invites the musicians from the Concert de la Loge de Julien Chauvin on stage, in a unique stage design favoring all interactions between instrumentalists and soloists.
It is a complex version of Don Giovanni where the character oscillates between his inner inclinations. For this Don Giovanni, the ARCAL (Lyric and Musical Theatre Company) has bet on youth, with the cream of the rising generation of French singing for a vibrant and current interpretation of this timeless myth.
Don Giovanni’s story: In Seville, Spain. Seductive blasphemer, Don Giovanni moves forward masked to seduce Donna Anna, who is also engaged to Don Ottavio. Anna rejects him and receives protection from the Commandant, her father. During a nocturnal duel, Don Giovanni fatally wounds the old man before leaving. On his way, he also crosses paths with Zerlina, whom he tries to seduce on her wedding day with Masetto. As for Donna Anna, whom he abducted from the convent and then abandoned, she will chase him until their ultimate encounter with the Commandant, who returns from the dead…
Jean-Yves Ruf, the director, questions… “Isn’t one of the functions of theater to bring to light all our complexities, our shadows as much as our desires for elevation? And that’s what intrigues us, reflects us back to ourselves, to our own deviations. If we turn the libretto and music of Don Giovanni in every direction, we can draw very diverse, contradictory lines, and the multitude of versions proves to us how deep this work is in terms of possible interpretations. It would be fascinating to make a contemporary trial of Don Giovanni, to expose his crimes, his faults, but also his utopia, his motivations, his extenuating circumstances. Not to just make a case against him.”
Don’t miss… Pre-Show: Saturday, April 25th at 7 pm (Free). With Benjamin Lassauzet, musicologist, and part of the artistic team, the Opera offers you 30 minutes of discussion to discover the show.
Marm’opera Workshop for children (5-11 years old): Sunday, April 26th at 2:45 pm (Free). While you watch the show, your children can discover the Opera by participating in creative workshops related to the performance. Free on reservation at the Maison de la Culture de Clermont-Ferrand, reservation: billetterie@clermont-auvergne-opera.com
Duration: 3 hours and 10 minutes including intermission. Singing in Italian. Subtitled in French. For ages 11 and up. Tickets available on clermont-auvergne-opera.com.
