Salzburg Festival

What you need to know: Mozart’s Don Giovanni

The opera quick check by Larissa Schütz

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Tschepp)

Whether you're on the trolley bus on the way to the performance, having a cigarette in front of the Salzburg Festival Theatre or queuing in the toilet - with the opera quick check you'll be perfectly prepared for the premiere in just two minutes. Part two of the series: Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

What's it all about? Don Giovanni is regarded as the Hugh Hefner of the opera world, who falls in with the wrong women who put an abrupt end to his wild goings-on as a playboy. A musical-theatrical version of the #MeToo movement in Mozart's time.

Plot: Don Giovanni is a womanizer with a record of an incredible 2065 one-night stands. After the failed conquest of Donna Anna, he kills her father, the Commendatore, in the heat of the moment, which initially goes unnoticed. Next on the list is Zerlina. The fact that she is getting married today is of little concern to him. At the last second, however, Donna Elvira, his ex, who has come to the wedding with Anna and her fiancé, is able to thwart the rendezvous with the bride. A wild game of confusion begins, with Don Giovanni receiving one basket after another until he finally seeks peace in the neighboring cemetery, where the Commendatore is buried under a statue. The statue of the Commendatore suddenly begins to speak and Giovanni invites it to visit him, not entirely seriously. At home, the Commendatore gives him one last chance to repent - in vain. The culprit goes to hell and instead of shedding a tear for him, the women celebrate his end.

Show-off knowledge for the interval: in addition to the original "Prague version", there is another "Viennese version" with additional arias, but without the women's final aria. Today, a mixture of both versions is usually performed.