Don Giovanni@Teatro Marrucino

Yesterday night I was on the (back)stage of Teatro Marrucino for the premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Director Paul-Émile Fourny had a brilliant idea: to portray Don Giovanni as a vampire. This choice was essentially coherent with Don Giovanni’s ‘predatory’ attitude, while maintaining a visual style for the mise en scène that was consistent with the time in which the story was set.

The lighting design by Patrick Meeus and the video design by Mario Spinaci created a dark overall mood without losing the play’s main characteristic: the alternation between drama and humour.

Coherently, mirrors played an important role in the play. A giant one acted as curtain

In another scene, the mirror only reflected Zerlina, not Don Giovanni, revealing his vampiresque nature.

So it’s no surprise that, when the time comes to confront Don Giovanni, Masetto is supported by people wearing garlic necklaces and crosses.

Before meeting his fate, Don Giovanni embarks on a painful journey in which ghosts from his past return to haunt him.

After shaking the Commendatore’s hand, Don Giovanni falls

and is finally taken away by demons.

In terms of photography, I have chosen to use only the Fujifilm XF 18-120mm f/4 lens with the Fujifilm X-T5 this time.

As always, the electronic shutter prevented me from activating the anti-flicker feature. Consequently, I set the camera to full manual with a shutter speed of 1/100 and an aperture of F4. I found that using auto-ISO helped prevent overexposure or underexposure. This doesn’t always work, but when it does, the feature is very effective.