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World premiere by the Ballet Nacional de España on 21st December 1989 at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid (Spain).
This Don Juan is very important to me for several reasons, some of which I would like to state here following an order in time.
Miguel Narros thought up a script based on Zorrilla’s text that has plenty of scenic potential thanks to an imagination capable of producing great, attractive features. The script, which is full of subtleties, involves a deep knowledge of the narrative demands needed to be developed and captured in the aesthetic world of dance.
In the early days of the project, Narros, Nieto – author of the music – and myself as choreographer, held long working sessions as we were aware of the need to find the right path to channel creativity.Those were exciting and blissful days as we became aware of the general and partial approach to situations.
It took nearly one year for Nieto to complete the score of Don Juan. During the recording with the orchestra, I experienced very intense moments and a deep emotion when, as I listened to every scene, the images of all the previously created situations flowed into me. It seemed almost impossible that a score could treat the characters in a way so very much like I’d previously conceived them.
Everything flowed like a natural stream and there was no doubt at all that that was the music I needed.
Working with artists of the stature of Narros and Nieto and with all those who collaborate in this work is something I’m deeply proud of.
All the members of the Ballet Nacional de España justly perform their roles and with their wonderful work take part in the great responsibility involved in staging Don Juan.
As for me, this is a beautiful way of celebrating my silver wedding anniversary with dance.
José Antonio
Choreography: José Antonio Ruiz
Music: José Nieto (original)
Costume design: Miguel Narros
Set design: Andrea D'Odorico and Mario Bernedo
Libretto: Miguel Narros, based on the work of the same name by José Zorilla
Lighting: Josep Solbes
Stage direction: Miguel Narros
Assistants to Miguel Narros: Sonia Grande and Elena Sanchís
Costume production: Peris Hermanos
Set construction: Cofiño and Enrique López
Sculptures: José Manuel Méndez Rodríguez
Masks and hats: Gerardo, Tony
Footwear: Gallardo, Maty, Freed’s of London
Props and hairdressing: Ballet Nacional de España
Musical performance:
Cante (singing): Juan José Alcalá
Orchestra: Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid
Conductor: Enrique García Asensio
FIRST PART
Don Juan’s First Night
Carnival. Baroque masks in which references to death predominate.
Don Juan encounters the unknown woman. The Veiled Lady gives Don Juan a white dove, symbol of virtue and innocence.
A joyful, uninhibited carnival.
Don Juan takes the dove and holds an intimate conversation with it.
Exactly one year has passed. The deadline agreed before a tavern crowd has arrived for comparing the results of a reckless wager in which Don Juan and Don Luis must prove which of them is the better man. The setting is prepared for the challenge.
Bets are placed. Don Luis tells his story, filled with violence, death and plunder; Don Juan recounts his tales of love affairs and gallant adventures.
Their lists are compared.
Don Juan emerges victorious.
Don Luis refuses to accept defeat and proposes a new challenge: “the seduction of a novice”.
Among those present, Don Juan spots Doña Ana de Pantoja, the wealthy heiress of a noble family and Don Luis’s betrothed, and seduces her in front of everyone.
The two older men, the Commander and Don Diego Tenorio, burst into the already tense situation.
Don Juan unmasks the two old men.
He breaks with the Commander.
He breaks with his father.
He is carried away on the shoulders of the frenzied crowd.
The wager still stands. Humiliated, Doña Ana tries to understand, and to make herself understood by the defeated Don Luis.
The Profanation
The convent where Doña Inés is confined.
Doña Inés is watched over by dark, silent nuns.
The convent walls are not thick enough to contain the voices of men, which drift in from the street and disturb the peaceful women devoted to prayer.
Brígida gives Doña Inés a letter from Don Juan.
Trembling, Inés reads the letter. New emotions begin to awaken within her: fear and curiosity.
Don Juan appears. Hypnotised by his presence, Inés faints.
Don Juan abducts her.
A love letter remains lying on the floor.
Unease spreads among the nuns.
Don Gonzalo enters, desperately searching for his daughter.
The nuns try to stop him. He discovers the letter. General outrage and obsession take hold.
The Devil at Heaven’s Gate
Doña Inés awakens in Don Juan’s arms.
The night, the moon and the river bear witness to Don Juan’s love for Doña Inés. The only love capable of saving or condemning him, and one that will fundamentally alter his destiny.
The unknown woman appears and comes between them.
The unknown woman brings in a defeated Don Luis and an offended Commander.
Don Juan wants to be heard, casting aside his mask as a seducer. He is now simply a man in love, begging and humbling himself.
A dangerous circle begins to close around him.
Don Juan kills the Commander and Don Luis.
The alarm is raised and Don Juan is forced to flee.
Doña Inés is left alone, surrounded by death and destruction.
SECOND PART
The Shadow of Doña Inés
Don Juan has returned from a long exile, ill and aged.
His home has become a funerary monument housing the remains of those who denied him life.
The unknown woman, Don Juan’s faithful companion, shows him the threatening marble statues guarding the monument where Doña Inés lies.
Don Juan learns that Doña Inés has died.
Doña Inés has remained a constant, living memory within Don Juan, the cause of his solitude. He has lived for her and returned for her.
Delirious, Don Juan attempts to possess the statue of his beloved.
The statue disappears. Everything is now unreal; Don Juan is lost in a labyrinth of shadows.
The threatening statues surround him.
Don Juan must confront the dead, just as he once confronted the living.
Don Juan awakens from his hallucinations in the presence of his old friends, Captain Centellas, Ciutti and Avellaneda, who revive him after his faint.
Don Juan sees that everything is in order. The statues have returned to their places.
He puts on the mask of Don Juan once more.
He invites his friends to dine at his home, but before leaving he strikes the Commander with his glove and invites him to dinner as well.
The Statue of Don Gonzalo
The table is prepared for the strange banquet.
Don Juan, as a good host, attends to his guests.
He has laid a place for the Commander.
His friends are uneasy at Don Juan’s strange behaviour.
Don Juan falls once more into delirium and summons the Commander.
Knocks are heard, growing ever closer. Everything changes. The Commander’s statue becomes visible.
The statue tells him how little time he has left to live: “This very night Don Juan must die.”
Doña Inés appears and asks Don Juan to reflect upon the Commander’s warning.
The shadows have disappeared.
Don Juan wakes his friends and accuses them of having devised this grotesque farce.
Outraged, his friends turn against him. They draw their swords.
Don Juan challenges both of them.
The Mercy of God
The dying Don Juan, with a red wound upon his chest, challenges the Commander.
The unknown woman, eternally in love with Don Juan, leads him to the macabre feast prepared by the Commander.
Fire and ashes. And the little time remaining in an hourglass.
Don Juan learns that he has been murdered by his friends.
He watches his own funeral.
He is surrounded by familiar figures whom he deceived in life.
Penitent shadows await their eternal punishment.
The stone hand of the statue grips Don Juan’s hand.
Terrified, Don Juan now feels that the strength of the Commander’s cold hand is invincible.
Inés saves him from eternal damnation.
Don Juan asks for forgiveness.