During his time as manager from 1975 to 1995, Michael Hampe brought the Oper Köln international recognition. His production of Don Giovanni stands in connection with an exemplary cultivation of the Mozart repertoire. James Conlon conducts the Gürzenich- Orchester Köln, and the well known singers Thomas Allen, Carolyn James and Carol Vaness are convincing in the main roles. Hampe’s directing concept is based on the contradiction between an irresistibly raging lust for life that cannot be inhibited by any limits (embodied by Don Giovanni) and death, as its counterpart, which appears in the person of the stone guest. Mozart and da Ponte’s claim was that their interpretation of this material depicted their own time, when the economically and morally exhausted feudal system stood immediately before its dissolution (which would shortly come in the French Revolution). This idea guided the Cologne production in its impressive, many-layered realization of the “Giovanni cosmos”.

Live recording from the Oper Köln, 1991

Don Giovanni Thomas Allen
Donna Anna Carolyn James
Donna Elvira Carol Vaness
Leporello Ferrucio Furlanetto
Zerlina Andrea Rost
Comtur Matthias Hölle

Gürzenich-Orchester Köln

Conductor James Conlon
Stage Director Michael Hampe