Conductor Iván Fischer
Director Iván Fischer
Set and lighting Andrea Tocchio
Costumes Anna Biagiotti
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Dance Ensemble Iván Fischer Opera Company

Production
Iván Fisher Opera Company
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Müpa Budapest
Vicenza Opera Festival

Italian and English surtitles by Prescott Studio

Vicenza, Teatro Olimpico
30 October, 1, 2 November 2025

*

The myth of Don Giovanni
by Pietro Citati [2011, excerpt]

[…] The secret of Don Giovanni lies in a word that he repeats insatiably, furiously, frantically, as if he wanted to dig it out, bringing its content to light. «Can’t you see that I just want to have fun?» […] What is the real meaning of these words: to have fun? Although Don Giovanni is not bent to […] reflection, he knows, unconsciously, that [to have fun] includes many things, which may be partly unknown to him, but for which he knows he possesses «a talented vocation». […] Having fun means increasing the rhythm and speed of life almost to the point of madness; not lingering for even a moment in one place or another, because somewhere else you always have more fun; living only in the present, or in that moment of the future that moves immediately after the present instant; […]; going through all the phases and shadows of every passion, from fury to sweetness and from sweetness to fury […]; neither design nor plan nor predict, or anticipate, but just desire, rejoice, enjoy, possess, and then abandon, and then desire and rejoice again, because pleasure is this never-ending and highly fluid fusion of desire, possession, and abandonment. […]
But [Don Giovanni] will not be overwhelmed by earthly things, which he adores, only by heavenly and infernal things, which bore him or do not interest him at all.