Tony Award–winning director Ivo van Hove makes a major Met debut with a new take on Mozart’s tragicomedy, re-setting the familiar tale of deceit and damnation in an abstract architectural landscape and shining a light into the dark corners of the story and its characters. Maestro Nathalie Stutzmann makes her Met debut conducting a star-studded cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as a magnetic Don Giovanni, alongside the Leporello of bass-baritone Adam Plachetka. Sopranos Federica Lombardi, Ana María Martínez, and Ying Fang make a superlative trio as Giovanni’s conquests—Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina—and tenor Ben Bliss is Don Ottavio.
The Marriage of Figaro is one of the most emblematic operas in the repertoire. Brahms spoke of it as a “miracle” and the Countess' complaint still resonates today as one of the most heartbreaking musical pages. It was by resuming Beaumarchais' comedy, which caused a scandal in Parisian society, that Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte began their first collaboration. The play was banned by Joseph II in 1785 at the Vienna Theater. Is it because it exposed too much to the forefront the contradictions of an already faltering regime, ready to collapse with the French Revolution? Netia Jones preserves the very essence of Beaumarchais' play by questioning human relationships with humor but not without mischief, in a production which confuses reality and fiction to the point of asking, like the Count: "Are we playing a comedy?" »
In its most ambitious effort yet to bring the joy and artistry of opera to audiences everywhere during the Met’s closure, the company presented an unprecedented virtual At-Home Gala, featuring more than 40 leading artists performing in a live stream from their homes all around the world.
Peter Mattei (born 3 June 1965) is a Swedish operatic baritone, particularly known for his performances in Mozart's baritone roles.