Simon Keenlyside smolders dangerously in the title role of Mozart’s version of the legend of Don Juan, creating a vivi | dG1fNXgyZkJpQWktME0
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:10 Don Giovanni, for me, is somebody who is amoral.
00:14 You know, he has no morality. He has no ethics.
00:18 He is totally opportunistic in his relationships.
00:21 So therefore, he has also never a deep relationship with somebody.
00:24 You would call it with the modern word, a sociopath.
00:27 You know, somebody who has no real empathy for somebody else.
00:31 We never situate a production in a certain era.
00:34 We always try to make it into something that, if you see it in 10 years, it would be contemporary.
00:39 If you would have seen it 10 years ago, it would have been contemporary.
00:42 So also in the costumes and in the design, it's an attempt to make universal dramas.
00:47 What we see on stage is actually a street.
00:50 We are on the street, public life, outside.
00:52 You never see what's happening inside of the buildings.
00:55 So it's a street with five buildings on it.
00:57 The buildings pivot slowly so that what seems to be a street also can become a prison, a closed space.
01:04 And that's what happens at the famous moment at the end with the Commendatore
01:08 when he appears and suddenly this whole set closes and he is in his own prison.
01:12 You could say the prison that he created himself.
01:14 [Music]
01:18 I saw Pieter Matthijs already in two Don Giovanni's, which were famous productions.
01:22 He is a fabulous singer, of course, but also a fabulous actor.
01:26 He's the perfect mix and that's what you need for a Don Giovanni.
01:29 And he will bring all his knowledge to this production.
01:32 We shouldn't forget that the original title was not Don Giovanni.
01:37 That was in Italian, "Il Punito Disoluto," and that means "The Criminal Perished."
01:44 How clear can it be?
01:45 It was not this attractive, seductive Don Giovanni that was of interest to Mozart.
01:51 He made his verdict clear in his title.
01:54 The criminal should be punished.
01:56 [Music]