DON JUAN GIOVANNI

Sganarelle, Don Juan’s long-suffering servant, is tired and jealous of his master’s libertine ways. Juan lurches from one sexual escape to another, while Sganarelle is left to pick up the pieces and drive the escape car. But when Sganarelle tries to raise moral objections, Don Juan runs rhetorical circles around him and persuades him to continue – and so the pattern of their life together continually repeats itself as the two of them motor across the country in an unending road trip to nowhere.

One day, at a drive-in movie, Don Juan and Sganarelle meet their counterparts Don Giovanni and Leporello. Giovanni, in disguise has attempted to seduce the wealthy Donna Anna, who runs into the street calling for help. Her father, the Commendatore, comes to her aide, but is killed in the ensuing brawl. Anna vows to avenge her father’s death.

Meanwhile Don Juan and his companions run into Elvira, Juan’s estranged wife, who is also set on revenge. And when Juan and Giovanni seduce the fiancée, a simple garage mechanic, it seems that the whole world is turning against this pair of intractable gigolos. But when Don Juan boasts that he’ll give dinner to the ghost of the murdered Commendatore, has his hubris finally gotten the better of him?

FIGARO

We are in Paris in the year 1792, and the French Revolution is raging. Count Almaviva and his long-time servant, the barber Figaro, have taken refuge in a deserted mansion across the street from the Bastille

The Count spends most of his days hiding in a closet, with Figaro still tending to him, more or less. They bicker and insult each other, and remember their past life together in Seville – and their memories come to life before them.

Suddenly it is once again Figaro’s wedding day. The Count is plotting to seduce Susanna, Figaro’s fiancée; meanwhile a young page, Cherubino, has fallen in love with the lonely Countess

The Old Count and Old Figaro watch as their former selves enact their inevitable patterns of seduction and recrimination. Outside the Revolution blazes, threatening to engulf the aging aristocrat – and slowly past and present seem to merge.

• ARTicles
  • Mozart & Company - by Gideon Lester
  • ARTicles vol. 6 no. 1 - entire issue as pdf
• Program
  • Thief of Hearts: The Potency of Don Juan - by Sarah Ollove
    • Don Juan Giovanni Program Notes - by Steven Epp & Dominique Serrand
  • You Say You Want a Revolution? - by Sarah Ollove
    • Figaro Program Notes - by Steven Epp & Dominique Serrand
  • entire proogram booklet for both opera-plays as pdf
• On the ARTblog
  • Introducing Don Juan Giovanni & Figaro
  • all Don Juan Giovanni & Figaro blog posts
• Press Coverage
  • Boston Globe - A joy ride with Mozart and Moliere - by Louise Kennedy
  • Boston Globe - Merger mania - by Matthew Guerrieri
  • Boston Phoenix - Figaro review by Carolyn Clay
  • Boston Phoenix - Don ho! On the road with Mozart and Molière in Don Juan Giovanni - by Carolyn Clay
  • Boston Phoenix - Would you like Mozart with that? - by Sally Cragin
  • Edge Boston - review by Robert Nesti
  • TAB newspapers - Mashing up Mozart and Moliere to make two new operas at ART - by Francis Ma
• Theatre de la Jeune Lune
  • Don Juan Giovanni audio and photos
  • Figaro video and photos
• Poster - available online via Zazzle.com