Too much information | 12 July 2018

When Kasper Holten’s production of Don Giovanni was first staged at the Royal Opera in 2014, I disliked it intensely, even more than I have disliked most of his other productions, or for that matter most productions of Don Giovanni. I missed the first revival, but when I saw it this time round my reactions were more complex, though I still think there is a lot wrong with it. In the meantime, I have watched the 2014 production on Blu-ray. Holten and Es Devlin the set designer give a commentary throughout, which at least helped me to understand what was intended, even if it didn’t convince me that most of the producer’s ideas are helpful or even realisable.

Holten’s key idea is that Giovanni, for all his ebullience, energy, charm and erotic power, is desperately miserable, so much so that by the time we arrive at the Supper scene he is mad, wholly divorced from any awareness of the existence of anyone else, so that the Stone Guest is a figment of his crazed mind, and the hell to which he seems to be dragged down by devils is his total loss of contact with reality.