DON JUAN NO EXISTE

WORLD PREMIERE OPERA
DON JUAN NO EXISTE

In the early 20th century, a countess attends a performance of Don Giovanni accompanied by two of her closest friends. She admires the scenery, the characters, but fails to connect with the piece. However, she does get a sudden creative impulse: to write her very own Don Juan. We join Carmen Díaz de Mendoza Aguado, the Countess of San Luis, at her desk. She starts to write, and it is not only her own voice that she hears, but that of her insecurities, of society and even of a ghost that stops her. She is alone, even though her friend Miguel is close to her, and he doesn't understand why she needs to proceed with this strange project. The premiere is a failure. In 2024, a new creator is trying to complete an opera and trying to piece together what happened with the premiere of Carmen Díaz de Mendoza Aguado's Don Juan no existe. She has found newspaper clippings about the premiere, but there is hardly anything left about the countess. Not even the text remains; it has to be invented in order to talk about her. Again, the antagonistic voice appears. But this time it is different; it does not cause the author to falter. They talk. She asks, why are you looking so hard for this countess? But the author remains determined and will continue her search. This is how Helena Cánovas Parés' opera came about. It is commissioned by Festival Peralada and co-produced by the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and the Teatro de la Maestranza, with the participation of the Teatro Real and the Teatros del Canal for having won the second Carmen Mateu Young Artist European Award. An opera that pays homage to all those women who have been erased from history simply because they were born women.