Theatre of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
Il dissoluto punito, ossia Il Don Giovanni
Opera in two acts, with recitatives in Polish translated by Stanisław Barańczak
Libretto | Lorenzo da Ponte
Creative Team
Staging, Direction, and Costumes | Michał Znaniecki
Music Director | Tadeusz Kozłowski
Scenography | Rafał Olbiński, Luigi Scoglio
Choreography | Inga Pilchowska
Lighting Design | Dawid Karolak
Graphic Projections | Karolina Jacewicz
Assistant Director | Natalia Jóźwiak
Cast
Don Giovanni | Łukasz Klimczak
Leporello | Dawid Biwo
Donna Anna | Joanna Moskowicz
Donna Elvira | Zofia Garganisz
Zerlina | Hanna Sosnowska-Bill
Don Ottavio | Jarosław Bielecki
Masetto | Bartłomiej Kłos
Commendatore | Remigiusz Łukomski
Dancers
Katarzyna Reisch, Anna Reisch, Zyta Bujacz-Dziel,
Karolina Banaszek, Natalia Jóźwiak, Joanna Kierzkowska
Vocal Ensemble of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Head of the Vocal Ensemble | Krzysztof Kusiel-Moroz
Period Instrument Orchestra of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense (MACV)
Conductor | Alessandro De Marchi
Mozart’s Don Giovanni is unforgettable. From the very first moment—the menacing andante in D minor of the overture, to the lively allegro in D major, and onwards—the dramma giocoso, the “jocular drama,” begins perfectly. No one, not even Mozart himself in any other work, achieves such genius and perfection. The opera is full of mysteries and questions. What really happened between Donna Anna and Don Giovanni? Are Anna, Don Ottavio, or Donna Elvira capable of killing? Does Don Giovanni’s lover’s catalog really contain 2,065 names, surnames, and addresses? Why does Zerlina ask Masetto to strike her? Who is Elvira’s maid? What role does Leporello play—as narrator, friend, mask, alter ego, or mirror? And ultimately: what is love (“Don Juan kills love,” as Shaw wrote), freedom (“Viva la libertà”), and death?
And the most pressing question: who is Don Giovanni? Or rather, who is the Commendatore? Questions multiply. As Michał Bristiger wrote: “A murder has been committed (a new dramatic moment in the history of opera!). It is a ‘liminal’ event, meaning it contains absolute irrevocability. The opera tells of this irrevocability, of the inevitability of Don Giovanni being seized by a force outside the everyday world, regardless of how it connects with punishment.” So, the opera confronts murder, crime, inevitability, and retribution. Perhaps damnation, perhaps hell. This is a new beginning for dramma giocoso—a human comedy in which there is nothing to laugh at.
For me, this production is more than the latest premiere in a theatre.
It is an event! Rafał Olbiński’s projections pulse with the emotions and subconscious of the title character.
Alina Ert-Eberdt – Segregatory
Michał Znaniecki’s staging of Don Giovanni is designed for repeated viewing and listening, allowing the audience to savor and fully enjoy it. The set design teases and entices, inviting one to peer through its openwork layers, to observe, guess, and imagine. I often found myself captivated. The abundance of stimuli produced moments of pure “wow.” The small space of the Warsaw Chamber Opera becomes, in Znaniecki’s production, a kind of silva rerum: action unfolds on the proscenium, the stage, deep in the back, and in side scenes. Only after some time did I regretfully realize that pausing on the six-hundred-eighth detail distracted me from the music.
Monika Jazownik – Presto
The best soloists were brought from across the country, along with the conductor, to ensure that the most important element—the music of Mozart—remained uncompromised.
Bronisław Tumiłowicz – Przegląd