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Mischief, seduction, raucous humor and incomparable music — Mozart’s Don Giovanni, considered by many to be the greatest opera ever written, is coming to Temple.
Temple University Opera Theater will stage performances of the Mozart masterpiece (sung in the original Italian with updated English supertitles) on Friday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 22, at 3 p.m., in Tomlinson Theater, 1301 Norris St., on Temple’s Main Campus.
Stage director Leland Kimball, who directed Temple Opera’s National Opera Association competition-winning productions of Falstaff and Hansel and Gretel, returns to Temple to direct the cautionary tale of the great lover more commonly known as Don Juan, a man who may have to pay a steep price for his conquests and deceptions.
Although Don Giovanni is a repertoire standard, Kimball says Temple Opera’s production is anything but.
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Ryan S. Brandenberg / Temple University
THE WORLD'S GREATEST LOVER, Don Giovanni (sung by Jun Hee Han, left) works his magic with Zerlina (sung by Hwa-Seon Song) in Temple University Opera Theater's production of Mozart's 'Don Giovanni'
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“It’s an energetic, theatrical production,” said Kimball, currently the producing artistic director at Opera Delaware and the director of more than 70 opera productions. “We’re working with a professional fight choreographer who has worked at the Metropolitan Opera and added more fight scenes.
There’s lots of humor, and the set is grand and surreal. The scene where Don Giovanni is pulled into hell is spectacular.”
Yet for all the opera’s nimble comedy and eternal themes of morality and judgment, the main attraction is the music.
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Tickets are $20 general admission; $12.50 for seniors, students, and Temple University employees; and free for Temple students with OWLcard.
In-person, cash-only sales are available at the Liacouras Center Box Office, 1776 N. Broad St., Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and at Tomlinson Theater 45 minutes before curtain. Credit card orders may be made at www.liacourascenter.com or 1-800-298-4200.
Guarded parking is available in Lot No. 10 ($10 per car, payable in cash only) near the theater on Diamond Street between N. 12th and N. Marvine.
For more information, call 215-204-7600.
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“There’s a reason Don Giovanni is universally beloved,” said John Douglas, Temple Opera’s musical director and conductor. “Mozart was a genius. For example, in one scene, the main orchestra plays a minuet while two smaller string orchestras on stage strike up two peasant dances, all in different tempos! It all coordinates as a result of Mozart’s keen intellect.”
For the student cast members, Don Giovanni offers a critical learning experience, says Douglas.
“We take pride in the great variety of operas we stage,” said Douglas, who is an associate professor of voice and opera in Temple’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.
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“Performing in a wide variety of types of productions, from little-known modern operas to traditional staples such as Don Giovanni, is essential to our students’ growth as singers and actors.
It’s important, for example, for students to learn how to handle themselves in Don Giovanni’s full, traditional 17th-century Spanish costumes: gloves, boots, capes and dense layers of clothing.”
Despite Don Giovanni’s adult themes, Douglas and Kimball stress that the production will be appropriate for family audiences. |
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