Inside the brilliant mind of the Scottish opera director having his third crack at the Don.

How did this Mozart project come about?

Lyndon [Terracini] made an initial approach to find out would I be interested, and I said, “I’m always interested in new theatres, new environments, a pool of singers I don’t know”. Then he came up with the idea of doing the Da Ponte cycle. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of doing all three of them in one space with a lot of through casting.

With Don Giovanni, are you building on previous interpretations or starting with a clean slate?

I think if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If I’ve had a good idea in the past I’m going to bring that idea back. But you’ve got a different cast so the ideas are going to run in different directions. Now I’ve got Teddy [Tahu Rhodes]. Before that I had Simon Keenlyside, before that I had Gary Magee. Three very different men with different personalities that will take it in very different directions. Mozart’s the most Shakespearean of opera composers. It’s his musical characterisation of the text that can lead you in...