Mozart At The Met, Live In High-Def
The Met: Live in HD returns to the big screen this Saturday afternoon at Carmike's East Ridge 18 theaters, with a special presentation of Mozart's famous Don Giovanni.
Set in Spain in the mid-18th century, Leporello, servant to the nobleman Don Giovanni, keeps watch outside the Commendatore’s home at night.
Suddenly, the Commendatore’s daughter, Donna Anna, rushes out, struggling with the masked Giovanni and followed by her father. The Commendatore challenges Giovanni to a duel and is killed. Giovanni and Leporello escape. Anna asks her fiancé, Don Ottavio, to avenge her father’s death.
The two-act opera, sung in Italian with subtitles provided in English, is based upon the fictional exploits of "the world's greatest lover" Don Juan. When it was first staged, the libretto, by the noted by Lorenzo Da Ponte, was seen as a dramma giocoso, a mix of seriousness and comedy, making it one of the earliest examples of what we know refer to as "dramedy".
Three charismatic singers, Simon Keenlyside (making his Met role debut), Ildar Abdrazakov, and Mariusz Kwiecien, share the role of the title hero, who goes to hell in a dazzling coup de théâtre.
The ensemble of great Mozartean singers includes Angela Meade, Marina Rebeka, Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani, Erwin Schrott, and Paul Appleby. Fabio Luisi and Plácido Domingo conduct.