Don Juan, one of the most popular French musicals, makes its China debut at Shanghai Culture Square on Jan 25. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Don Juan, one of the most popular French musicals, made its China debut on Jan 25 in Shanghai and will hit another six cities across the nation this year. The stage show marks the 20th anniversary of its premiere.

Written by French composer Felix Gray in 2003 and brought to the stage in 2004 by Gilles Mathieu, director of the renowned French musical Notre Dame de Paris, this celebrated musical has been met with great success in France, Canada and South Korea. In 2016, the show also saw its Japanese version staged by the renowned Takarazuka Revue.

Over the past two decades, the musical has attracted an audience of 600,000 people across the world.

Who is Don Juan?

Don Juan is a legendary libertine and seducer from Spanish folklore, an aristocratic playboy known for his flirtatious behavior in Western literature.

The earliest account of Don Juan's story dates back to the early 17th century, when Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina, or Gabriel Tellez, created the El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest) in 1616.

Over centuries, various artists have written over a thousand works derived from Don Juan in diverse artistic forms such as poems, music and films, which made the character into an iconic symbol in Western literature. These artists include many big names such as French playwright Moliere, English poet Byron, as well as musicians Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss. 

Among the artists is the renowned Tunisian-French composer Felix Gray, who drew on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni and Tirso de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra to adapt the classic storyline in 2003, who then brought the show to stage in the next year.

A unique Don Juan

Unlike most artistic works on the literary character, the musical Don Juan gives a more modern interpretation of the character and his story from a more human perspective.

Moreover, one highlight that is unique and differs from the musical adaptation of other artworks about Don Juan is the love he experienced.

"In the musical, Don Juan falls in love. Love is his biggest obstacle, as he had broken the hearts of so many women and then had a love that bordered on madness," said Gray in an event held after the musical's Shanghai premiere.

He noted that such adaptation has never appeared in other Don Juan interpretations.

"Don Juan is contradictory and confusing. He loves fighting, alcohol, pleasure, and all things crazy. But when we talk about Don Juan, no one knows what he wanted. We don't even know if he is really happy. While in this musical, we filled him with complex and infinite emotions such as love and hate, friendship and paternal love, betrayal and jealousy, loss and glory," Gray added.

Gian Marco Schiaretti, who played the title role in the musical, shared that he has cast his own feelings about first love in his performance," Don Juan had been living an animalistic life. After he experienced true love, he became like a child, began to learn about love and its good, and finally, he realized his mistakes and gently showed repentance. The whole process can be visible as an evolution."

Another captivating aspect of the performance comes from the passionate music and dancing featuring Spanish styles - despite being a French musical with a 20-year run.

The musical features impressive, rhythmic and dreamy flamenco dancing and is propped with bright guitar tones and rich Spanish musical elements.

Gray pointed out that instead of a combination of spoken lines and songs in musicals in other languages, French musicals tend to turn all the expressions on stage into songs and are more used to explore expressions that transcend programmatic and conventional ones. 

"French musicals often surge with abundant, intense and strong expressions of emotion from beginning to end, which is rare in the creation of musicals in other languages. But that's what Latin culture is supposed to be about, and that's what French culture is about, which is bringing something very emotional to the audience," said Nicolas Talar, producer of the show.

Carlos Rodriguez, the musical's choreographer, shared similar sentiments, "I think the most important thing about flamenco is the voice and energy from the heart, as this musical is speaking about love - the passion, sadness, and essence."

China tour

After 20 years since its premiere, the musical Don Juan made its China debut on Jan 25 at Shanghai Culture Square, with 17 performances running through Feb 8.

The Shanghai premiere has not only been long-awaited for local musical fans but also Fei Yuanhong, deputy general manager of Shanghai Culture Square.

"The producer recommended this musical to me more than ten years ago. However, at that time, the French musical market in Shanghai was not so mature and our knowledge of French musicals was limited, so I thought it was not the right time then. But this year, we can see that Shanghai has accumulated audiences who value and love French culture and French musicals," said Fei.

Laurent Ban, who plays the role of Don Juan's best friend Don Carlos and has been to China many times to perform in other musicals such as the Mozart-L'Opera Rock, noted that they began preparing for this show four years ago.

"I think this is the right time to bring Don Juan to China and I think this musical is to Chinese audiences' taste. Not only the charm of French romance and Latin cultures, I think the musical's rhythm, dance, emotional power, the passion for love and the theme of having the courage to die for love will be well-received by Chinese audiences," said Ban.

Feedback from the audiences in Shanghai has proved these thoughts.

As of the time of writing, the musical's hashtag on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle-sharing platform, has garnered over 1.2 million views. Many dates for the 17 performances in Shanghai have been sold out.

"The creative team brought this play to Shanghai with great enthusiasm and confidence. At the Shanghai premiere, we felt the enthusiasm of the audience and captured the light in their eyes, and this light is the greatest recognition for us," said Talar. 

After Shanghai, Don Juan will run on its China tour from Mar 21 to May 5, hitting six cities, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Xiamen.