Berkshire Opera Festival Announces Don Giovanni Production, August 2020 

Berkshire Opera Festival

Announces Don Giovanni Production, August 2020

One of Mozart’s greatest achievements will hit the Berkshires stage in Pittsfield, MA

(Great Barrington, MA) — Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) is thrilled to announce its Fifth Anniversary Season production of Mozart’s iconic opera Don Giovanni, to be presented at the historic Colonial Theatre (Pittsfield, MA) August 22, 25, and 28, 2020. The opera, based on the legend of Don Juan, is one of Mozart’s supreme achievements — and considered by many to be one of the greatest operas ever composed.

The intricacies of Don Giovanni’s plot match the intricacies of the music. The title character is a predator, a charming aristocrat, a murderer, and womanizer whose sexual conquests number into the thousands. Don Giovanni is the original antihero and he will stop at nothing to satisfy his lust — but his crimes demand punishment! Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte blend comedy, tragedy, and the supernatural to thrilling effect in this masterwork.

BOF’s Artistic Director and Co-Founder Maestro Brian Garman comments on the artistic choice of this opera:

“This timeless work stands, for me, as Mozart’s most brilliant masterpiece. Its music is intensely dramatic and emotional, of course, and Mozart achieves a deft balance of comedy and drama throughout. But what’s uncanny is the way he portrays the inner emotional states of each character through their music. This was a major development for the time, and the influence that Giovanni had on the works of later composers can’t be overstated.”

Director of Production Jonathon Loy comments on crafting a production that is freshly relevant to audiences today with Giovanni portrayed as the devil Lucifer.

“I do not see how in 2020 we can play Giovanni as a mortal man. His behavior is vile and inexcusable to a modern audience. I think making Giovanni a ‘Weinstein’ character or anything of the like is just obvious and boring at this point. It seems to me that Giovanni must be Lucifer, the devil himself.”

This production will star bass-baritone André Courville, praised by Opera News for his “splendid, lush bass-baritone,” as Don Giovanni, a young and licentious nobleman, and Erik Anstine as Leporello, Giovanni’s servant. Laura Wilde, a 2019 Richard Tucker Foundation career grant recipient, plays Donna Anna, the Commendatore’s daughter; tenor Joshua Blue, who sings frequently at Washington National Opera, comes to BOF as Don Ottavio; Joanna Latini makes her company and role debut as Donna Elvira, a noblewoman from Burgos. Additionally, hear legendary bass and Berkshire resident John Cheek as the Commendatore; Natalia Santaliz as Zerlina, a peasant girl; and Brian James Myer as Masetto, Zerlina’s fiancé. The performances will feature the Berkshire Opera Festival Orchestra and Chorus.

Don Giovanni opens at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 1:00pm. Additional performances will be held on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 7:30pm and Friday, August 28, 2020 at 7:30pm. Tickets to the general public go on sale at 10 AM on Monday, January 27, 2020. To learn more about the production and to purchase tickets, patrons should visit the BOF website: https://www.berkshireoperafestival.org/don-giovanni. Tickets may be purchased over the phone by calling the Colonial Theatre’s box office at (413) 997-4444.

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Don Giovanni Cast

DON GIOVANNI – André Courville

LEPORELLO – Erik Anstine

DONNA ANNA – Laura Wilde

DON OTTAVIO – Joshua Blue

DONNA ELVIRA – Joanna Latini

THE COMMENDATORE – John Cheek

ZERLINA – Natalia Santaliz

MASETTO – Brian James Myer

Creative Team

CONDUCTOR – Brian Garman

DIRECTOR – Jonathon Loy

SCENIC DESIGNER – Stephen Dobay

COSTUME DESIGNER – Charles Caine

LIGHTING DESIGNER – Alex Jainchill

HAIR AND MAKE-UP DESIGNER – Beckie Kravetz

CHOREOGRAPHER – Sara Erde

CHORUS MASTER AND ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR – Geoffrey Larson

PRINCIPAL PIANIST AND COACH – Djordje Nesic

MUSICAL PREPARATION – Andrew Sun

STAGE MANAGER – Cindy Knight

About Berkshire Opera Festival

Berkshire Opera Festival (BOF) is a fully-producing summer festival founded by Jonathon Loy and Brian Garman which premiered its first season in 2016. The mission of Berkshire Opera Festival is to entertain and enrich the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds throughout the Berkshire region by providing accessible and affordable performances of a broad range of operas with the highest artistic standards. Each summer, BOF presents musically and dramatically compelling operatic productions, in addition to recitals and other related musical events. Recent productions include Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Stauss’s Ariadne Auf Naxos, Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.

For more information on BOF’s 2020 production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, visit: https://www.berkshireoperafestival.org/don-giovanni