Don Giovanni

W. A. Mozart

22 - 25 October 2026

Don Giovanni seduces, deceives and discards women without conscience. But when one of his conquests leads to the murder of the girl’s father, a sinister force is unleashed from beyond the grave. Accustomed to getting his way, Don Giovanni’s years of cruelty and debauchery catch up with him and he finds himself facing death head on.

With this opera, Mozart and his librettist, Da Ponte, cover the spectrum from terror to humour in a totally absorbing story that asks compelling questions about sex, seduction, the pursuit of individual freedom and the right to defy societal norms.

Staged by French-American director Talia Stern, with designs by Allegra Bernacchioni. The Opera UCT cast and chorus, joined by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, are conducted by Peggy Wu and Jeremy Silver.

At the Pam Golding Theatre at The Baxter from 22^nd to 25^th October 2026.

Bookings available through Webtickets and the Baxter Box office.

PRICE

From R100 to R550
Under 18s - R18

VENUE

Pam Golding Theatre at The Baxter

RUNNING TIME

3 hours 15 minutes (including one interval)

LANGUAGE

The opera is sung in Italian, with captions displayed in English and isiXhosa.

Story

A charismatic playboy, a disenchanted servant, and a trail of betrayed women - Don Giovanni revels in the thrill of seduction with no regard for anyone else’s feelings. His servant Leporello is left to deal with the aftermath, consoling and explaining away the damage his master causes. When Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore in a duel over the honour of his daughter, Donna Anna, Leporello has had enough. But Don Giovanni has already moved on to his next conquest, Zerlina. Only his former lover, Donna Elvira, refuses to accept his betrayal and dedicates herself to warning other women. Defying any normal conventions, Don Giovanni seems determined to gamble with his own life, until the ghosts of his past return to confront him.

With Don Giovanni, Mozart and Da Ponte created one of opera’s enduring masterpieces. Through the psychological insight of Mozart’s extraordinary music, this dramma giocoso (‘lighthearted drama’) becomes a compelling exploration of human nature, raising provocative questions about sex, seduction and the individual freedom to defy societal norms.

Act 1 Act 2

Act I

Leporello keeps watch outside while Don Giovanni attempts to seduce Donna Anna. Her father, the Commendatore, overhears some commotion, challenges the masked Giovanni and, in the fight that follows, is killed. Anna flees the scene and soon returns with her fiancé, Don Ottavio. She makes Ottavio swear to avenge her father’s death.

Giovanni and Leporello come across a distressed woman. She turns out to be Donna Elvira, who has come from another city after being abandoned by Giovanni. Giovanni escapes from Elvira, leaving Leporello to make excuses. Leporello recounts Giovanni’s extensive catalogue of sexual conquests.

At Zerlina and Masetto’s wedding, Giovanni is about to make off with the bride, when Elvira intercepts him. Anna and Ottavio appear, requesting Giovanni’s help in punishing the Commendatore’s unknown murderer. Elvira denounces Giovanni, and as Giovanni leaves, Anna tells Ottavio that she is sure Giovanni is the Commendatore’s assassin. She renews her demand for revenge before rushing away, leaving Ottavio to reflect on his love for her.

Giovanni orders Leporello to lay on a party.

Zerlina persuades Masetto to forgive her. Giovanni arrives ready to start the party. He invites Zerlina and Masetto to join him. Anna, Ottavio and Elvira appear, each wearing a mask and intent on vengeance. Leporello invites them, on Giovanni’s behalf, to attend the party. Giovanni tells Leporello to distract Masetto, then leads Zerlina away to another room. When Zerlina screams for help, Giovanni puts the blame on Leporello and threatens to kill him. Anna, Ottavio and Elvira unmask and denounce Giovanni for his crimes.

Act II

Leporello threatens to leave Giovanni’s service, but the offer of money changes his mind. Giovanni forces Leporello to exchange identities with him, leading Elvira to believe that Leporello is in fact her lost husband. As they leave, Giovanni sings a serenade to Elvira’s maid.

Masetto is looking for Giovanni, who, still disguised as Leporello, beats him up. Masetto’s cries of pain bring Zerlina, who uses all her loving charms to comfort him.

In the darkness, Anna, Ottavio, Zerlina and Masetto discover Leporello, whom they believe to be Giovanni. Elvira, believing that Giovanni has had a change of heart towards her, pleads for mercy to be shown, but the others are determined to kill him. They then discover that he is, in fact, Leporello in disguise.

Leporello escapes, and Elvira is caught between rage, pity and revenge on Giovanni.

Giovanni takes refuge in a cemetery after a failed seduction of another girl. Leporello joins him and hears all about Giovanni’s latest adventures. Suddenly, the two hear the voice of the Commendatore emanating from a statue. Giovanni defiantly orders Leporello to invite the statue to dinner. The statue accepts.

Anna begs Ottavio to postpone their marriage until her grief for her father has subsided. When he berates her for treating him cruelly, she tries to assure him of her love and hopes that one day heaven will pity her suffering.

Leporello serves Giovanni his supper, who eats with relish while Leporello just looks on. Elvira burst in, making a final attempt to win back Giovanni. A knocking is heard and the Commendatore enters. He gives Giovanni an ultimatum to repent or suffer the flames of Hell. Giovanni resists him but meets his death.

All the other characters proclaim the end of an evildoer.

Characters

Don Giovanni, a young, upper-class womaniser

Leporello, his right-hand man

Il Commendatore, a retired army general

Donna Anna, his daughter

Don Ottavio, her fiancé

Donna Elvira, one of Giovanni’s former conquests

Zerlina, a working-class bride

Masetto, her fiancé

This Production

The question of Don Giovanni’s identity is one we encounter from the very beginning of Mozart’s infamous opera. As he escapes Donna Anna after his attempted assault, he tells her, “chi son io tu non saprai” - “who I am you will never learn.”

Often portrayed as a libertine, a rebel, or even the embodiment of sin, this production looks beneath the legend to explore the man himself. What drives him? What does he fear?

At its heart, this is a story about a man running from something he cannot escape. Beneath the seduction, bravado, and relentless pursuit is a very human fear - the fear of mortality.

Creative Team

What's the music like?

Mozart’s Don Giovanni is a striking blend of dark, dramatic tragedy and sparkling comedy. It shifts seamlessly from tense minor-key orchestral passages to light-hearted dance tunes, using brilliant vocal writing and instrumental layering to reflect the complex inner lives of its characters.

Mozart had an uncanny ability through his music to map complex human emotions, moral ambiguity and existential grief beneath an elegant surface of seemingly effortless beauty.

More about the composer

A musical prodigy from the age of six, Mozart is revered as one of the greatest musicians of all time. He was a prodigious pianist and violinist, and wrote famous pieces in every possible musical genre.

He reached international acclaim as a child, after his father took him on performing tours across regions that today correspond to 10 different countries.

At twenty-five, Mozart married and settled in his homeland of Austria.

Although Mozart died at the age of thirty-five, his legacy on western music is profound: not just in terms of sheer numbers (some 600 works), but in their emotional impact.

More about the librettist

Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote several librettos for Mozart and other composers. He was charming and charismatic, often short of money, and always running off with one girlfriend or another, in search of adventure and work.

Born in 1749 to Sephardic Jewish parents in the Republic of Venice, he followed his father in an opportunistic conversion to Catholicism, and got the benefits of a seminary education without absorbing much of its moral self-control. In fact, he needed to leave Venive rather suddenly when he was convicted of living in a brothel and organising its entertainment programme!

He lived an impressively varied life, emigrating to America in 1805, and ending up teaching at what would become Columbia University.

Did you know?

The character of Don Giovanni bears a striking resemblance to the infamous adventurer Giacomo Casanova, who was living in Prague during the opera’s première. He was known to be close friends with Da Ponte, and he attended the opera’s first night.
The first performance of a Don Giovanni production in South Africa occurred in 1876. It was staged by a visiting company at the Athenaeum Hall in Cape Town, presenting a burlesque of Mozart's opera by Henry James Byron titled Little Don Giovanni, or Leporello and the Stone Statue.
The overture to Don Giovanni was reportedly composed the night before its première. According to accounts, Mozart wrote it in a single evening, with his wife keeping him awake by telling him stories. The orchestra had to sight read it at the first performance.
In the final scene of the opera, a band begins to play Non più andrai from Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro. The character Leporello says dismissively "I know this piece far too well!" This was an in-joke at the première, as the singer playing Leporello in Prague had also played the role of Figaro in the same city earlier the same year.

References in popular culture

In a TV remake of the iconic film, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lector is seen listening to Dalla sua pace, Don Ottavio’s famous aria expressing his feelings for Donna Anna.
In Guy Ritchie’s 2011 feature film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Holmes works out Moriarty’s evil plans while racing backstage (and even onto the stage!) during the final scene of Don Giovanni at the Paris Opera. Meanwhile Moriarty sits back and enjoys the performance from a box seat in the audience.
In the Oscar-winning 1987 film Babette’s Feast, the seductive duet Là ci darem la mano is sung in a flashback scene by a younger version of one of the major characters and the famous French opera singer who is courting her. Interestingly, they sing the duet in French rather than the original Italian.
The 1984 film Amadeus is about Mozart himself. Winner of eight Oscars, including Best Picture, one of the scenes with most impact shows Mozart conducting the final scene of Don Giovanni, shortly after the death of Mozart’s own father.