(Photo: Frances Marshall) There were very few members of the audience who left the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival performance of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” without a smile on their faces. And why shouldn’t they have? After all, there was plenty to smile about. For this was a no-frills, simple production that presented the well-known narrative for laughs, nothing more. There was {…}
Opera Australia will open its 2026 National Tour with Michael Gow’s production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” in South Australia this July. The tour will then take the Mozart opera to Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania, marking the 30th anniversary of the company’s national touring program. The production, which last toured in 2013, will be conducted by Simon Bruckard, who {…}
Benevolence Opera Project and Redwood Theatre will present a one-night-only performance of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” on Friday, May 22 at 8 p.m. at the Redwood Theatre in Toronto. Canadian baritone Alexander Hajek takes the title role, joined by Luke Noftall as Leporello, James Coole-Stevenson as Masetto, Andrew Tees as Commendatore, Mary Ferrari as Donna Elvira, Cameron Mazzei as Don Ottavio, {…}
(Photo Credit: Octavio Alonso Maya Castro) Visiting the Palacio de Bellas Artes made me fall in love with opera again. The open plaza welcomed groups of young people walking, laughing, and congregating. The bronze-tiled dome gleamed like a radiant sunset, hugging the luminous marble archway. Stepping inside, the grand foyer projected an entirely different regal stature. Whereas the exterior of {…}
(Credit: Martin Sigmund) While the midsize southwestern German city of Stuttgart is not an international operatic centre like Berlin or Munich, it’s nonetheless important to opera’s history. It witnessed the world premieres of three major works: Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos“ (1912); Zemlinsky’s “A Florentine Tragedy” (1917); and Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten” (1984), in addition to several operas by Carl Orff and {…}
(Credit: Gianni Cravedi / Teatro Municipale di Piacenza) The great collector of women arrived in Emilia-Romagna, specifically at the Teatro Municipale di Piacenza, before moving on to Modena, as part of a co-production between the two cities’ theaters. The scenic concept was devised by Andrea Bernard. A statement of his opens the program booklet, in which he explains that he has {…}
(Credit: Thomas Mandt) Mozart comes to the German city of Rostock in the 2026 season’s production of “Don Giovanni.” Though the house is no stranger to Mozart, this is an all-new production of his genre-defying classic, and it is a staging full of surprises. Director Daniel Pfluger and Dramaturge Stephan Knies have brought together an interpretation that turns some of {…}
(Photo: Michael Bode) For its final production of the year, the Baden-Baden Festival presented Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” from December 19 to 21. It was conducted by Iván Fischer with baton and on the plateau, because the conductor, like Karajan before him, also directed the staging. The foremost quality of this production was undoubtedly the silky smoothness and harmony of the {…}
A new cast took over the Met Opera’s run of “Don Giovanni” on Nov. 6, 2025 to stunning results. I’ve said this before, but casting is such a complex task in the opera world. Most of these productions have to be cast years before they take place and often rely on projections of where certain artists will be vocally and {…}
(Photo: © Opéra Grand Avignon) From October 10 to 14, Opéra Grand Avignon is staging Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” in a production by Belgian director Frédéric Roels and Israeli-Brazilian conductor Débora Waldman. First, we must salute the fluid and natural musical direction of the conductor with the Orchestre National Avignon-Provence, which beautifully recreates Mozart’s silky orchestral lacework. Nevertheless, the orchestra speeds {…}
(Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera) Metropolitan Opera’s season premiere of Ivo van Hove’s production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” took place on September 24, 2025. Van Hove’s production originally debuted at Ópera National de Paris in 2019 at the Palais Garnier and OperaWire reviewed the performance in detail, specifically highlighting the set design and overall aesthetic. It is also important {…}