This season, The Glimmerglass Festival presents a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Director Brenna Corner and conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya helm this fresh take on the classic opera which explores the human psyche and retribution. Take an early look inside this world before it comes to the Alice Busch Opera Theater this July.
From the dramaturg’s desk
While the production is several months away, our resident dramaturg Kelley Rourke recommends the following readings to help step into the world of Don Giovanni.
Jane Glover’s Mozart’s Women explores the women in the composer’s life – mother, sister, wife, sisters-in-law, patrons, friends, lovers and fellow artists. It also considers the female characters created by Mozart and his librettists, including Don Giovanni’s conquests.
Mozart and Da Ponte were hardly the first artists to take up the story of the reckless seducer. Don Giovanni: Myths of Seduction and Betrayal, edited by Jonathan Miller, offers a collection of essays that explore aspects of Giovanni, as found in literature and myth.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, issues of power and consent are the source of an ongoing debate. Whose Story Is This?, a 2019 collection of essays by Rebecca Solnit, considers “who gets to shape the narrative of our time.”
“Don Giovanni is a story of abuse — physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological. The performance of this piece comes at a crucial time for us as a society as we continue to break down the assumptions and constructs of our previously held social norms.”– Brenna Corner, director