Simon Steen-Andersen's opera is a humorous and grotesque performance about Don Giovanni’s experiences in operatic hell.
Based on the final act of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Simon Steen-Andersen playfully queries the destiny of Don Giovanni following the fateful dinner with the commander whom Don Giovanni murdered. For his misdeeds, Don Giovanni was given a one-way ticket straight to hell, and in this musical fantasia he meets other doomed characters in the underworld of opera who have escaped from works by Puccini, Wagner, Verdi, Berlioz, Gounod and Monteverdi.
Simon Steen-Andersen gate-crashes hell with a twisted remix of opera’s greatest hits creating a quirky, grotesque, divergent and provocative performance that includes video, performance art and locations from the darkest corners of the theatre.
Words of praise from the Danish press
Don Giovanni's Inferno was premiered in Strasbourg in 2023 and is currently playing at The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen where it has received several great reviews and words of praise from the Danish critics.
Iscene rates it with six out of six stars, calls it "virtuosic inventiveness with something to say", and states that "the Danish composer has created something that transcends itself [...] The singers step in and out of video screens, and allow themselves to be humiliated and tortured, while boundaries between media, genres and worlds slowly erode."
Politiken also points out the crossings of genres and media: "On the one hand, it is an opera that cultivates the finest quality of opera, namely to dwell on a single theme and magnify the most dramatic emotions [...] On the other hand, it is a highly contemporary drama with high, high speed clippings […] that gives the same sensation as scrolling down film clips on a social media site on amphetamines."
Seismograf calls it a "wild demon baby", and elaborates: "It is a brave display of excessive imagination. A grotesque and deeply entertaining opera mass on speed."
Det sku' du se praises it as a performance which "helps to breathe fresh air into a genre that is so difficult to renew."
Don Juans Inferno is performed at The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen until 9 May. Find more information here.
Carl Prisen was founded by Musikforlæggerne in 2013. Every year, 15 prizes are awarded to composers and songwriters across musical genres. Find more information here.