Don Giovanni

media release: Seduction, danger, and eternal consequences: Madison Opera concludes its 2024/25 mainstage season with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the company’s first production of this classic work in twelve years. Performances are on May 2 at 7:30pm and May 4 at 2:30pm in Overture Hall.

Based on the legend of Don Juan, Don Giovanni tells of a nobleman who prides himself on a seduction record that includes 1,003 women in Spain alone. Over the course of a dramatic few days, Don Giovanni’s misadventures come back to literally haunt him, as Mozart’s brilliant score whirls people in and out of the Don’s midst. The second collaboration between Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, Don Giovanni premiered in 1787 and has since been thrilling and scandalizing audiences around the world.

“Don Giovanni is both brilliant and complex,” says Kathryn Smith, Madison Opera’s general director. “It requires eight leading performers who can maintain an intense musical and dramatic arc over the course of the evening. Mozart and Da Ponte give these characters unusual depth, and the music is simply sublime.”

Charles H. Eaton, last at Madison Opera as Count Malcolm in A Little Night Music, returns to the company as the amoral Don Giovanni. Katerina Burton makes her mainstage debut as Donna Anna, who seeks vengeance after Giovanni murders her father. Emily Fons sings Donna Elvira, one of Giovanni’s ex-lovers who seeks to destroy him. Both Burton and Fons sang at Opera in the Park 2024. Jeremiah Sanders debuts as Leporello, Giovanni’s long-suffering servant.

Andrew Stenson makes his mainstage debut as Don Ottavio, the fiancé of Donna Anna. The peasant couple Zerlina and Masetto, whose wedding Giovanni interrupts, are sung by Sachie Ueshima and Lifan Deng. Ashraf Sewailam, last at Madison Opera as the Captain in Florencia en el Amazonas, sings the Commendatore, who comes back from the dead to deliver a final judgement on Giovanni. They are joined by the Madison Opera Chorus.

David Lefkowich directs this traditional production, returning to Madison Opera after directing La Bohème and The Daughter of the Regiment in previous seasons. John DeMain conducts, leading the musical forces of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.

The opera will be sung in Italian, with projected English translations.

Madison Opera's 24/25 season brings our signature theatrical blend of both classic and newer works. From Rossini's comic The Barber of Seville to Piazzolla's striking María de Buenos Aires and Mozart's phenomenal Don Giovanni, this is a season you do not want to miss.

See all three operas for as little as $69 and be guaranteed dates on your calendar for the chance to laugh, the chance to be moved, and above all the chance to feel the human connection that only happens when we share opera together.

Subscriptions may be purchased at madisonopera.org or over the phone at 608-238-8085. To be mailed a physical brochure, please send us an email.

Friday evening performances begin at 7:30 pm

Sunday afternoon performances begin at 2:30 pm