Royal Opera House: Don Giovanni (2014)

Mozart's sublime tragic comedy offers boundless scope for directors, and Kasper Holten has chosen it to follow his directorial debut of Eugene Onegin. He wants to shift the emphasis from Don Giovanni's sex life into a darker place, showing Giovanni's womanizing as an attempt to stave off his own mortality. Each woman he seduces represents a life he could have had. Though it is a dark piece, Holten intends to handle it with a light touch and he is working with a superb cast - Mariusz Kwiecien, one of the world's leading Don Giovannis, Alex Esposito, a fresh, vigorous Leporello and acclaimed French soprano Véronique Gens.