Dramma giocoso in two acts K. 527 (1787)
Lib­retto: Lorenzo Da Ponte

"Il dis­sol­uto punito, os­sia Il Don Gio­vanni" ist he full title of the op­era that is widely held to be the most per­fect work of its genre. Luck­ily, it is known today merely as "Don Gio­vanni", a title that far bet­ter evokes the hero in all of his se­duct­ive power, his dis­reg­ard for the so­cial or­der, his merry wan­ton­ness. It is this hero who fas­cin­ated Moz­art, not the "dilloluto punito" – the "rake pun­ished" – who harks back to the mor­als and con­ven­tions of the late 18th cen­tury.It is a mor­al tale of murder, sexu­al ex­ploit­a­tion, and be­tray­al that is lightened by comed­ic ele­ments that in­fuse the whole with warmth and hu­man­ity.

Dir­ect­or Mar­tin Kušej in­ter­prets "Don Gio­vanni" with com­pel­ling im­ages that cast the rake as a child of todays’s con­sumer so­ci­ety, a man who ac­quires wo­men, uses them and dis­poses of them after con­sump- tion. Hap­pi­ness can be bought – but the specter of re­tri­bu­tion is nev­er far away, as in the evoc­at­ive "tableau vivant" of spent and broken high-so­ci­ety he­don­ists. Un­der the bat­on of young con­duct­or Daniel Hard­ing, the Vi­enna Phil­har­mon­ic weave a fresh, trans- par­ent and jaunty mu­sic­al fab­ric that un­der- scores every nu­ance of pas­sion and des­pair, as well as every shad­ing of wit and hu­man­ity that make "Don Gio­vanni" a work of une-qualed artistry.

Thomas Hampson, Don Gio­vanni
Ildebrando D’Ar­can­gelo, Leporello
Christine Schäfer, Donna Anna
Melanie Dien­er, Donna Elvira
Isa­bel Bayrak­dari­an, Zer­lina
Robert Lloyd, Il Com­mend­atore
Pio­tr Beczala, Don Ot­tavio
Luca Pis­aroni, Ma­setto

Wien­er Phil­har­monik­er
Konzer­tver­ein­i­gung Wien­er Staat­so­per­n­chor

Daniel Hard­ing, con­duct­or
Mar­tin Kušej, stage dir­ect­or
Karina Fibich, video dir­ect­or

Re­cord­ing dates: 08.08.| 11.08.| 15.08.2006
15.08.2006 live broad­cast on OR­F2

Ven­ue: Großes Fest­spiel­haus