Whenever I hunt for opera on YouTube, I find a gem or two. But this time, I struck gold.

Don Giovanni Unmasked is a film version of Mozart’s masterpiece, produced by the CBC and directed Barbara Willis Sweete, of The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD Broadcasts.

There are so many amazing things about this.

1. First of all, Dmitri Hvorostovsky stars as the Don…and Leporello. Love it. But wait, it gets better!

2. The music was conducted by Richard Bradshaw, leading the COC Orchestra.

3. The cast is full of Canadians: Alain Coulombe (Masetto), Krisztina Szabó (Zerlina), Michael Colvin (Ottavio), Dominique Labelle (Donna Anna), Barbara Dunn-Prosser (Donna Elvira), and Gary Relyea (the Commendatore).

Don Giovanni Unmasked left me pretty confused on a lot of fronts, but it’s oddly riveting. The concept is bizarre, with Leporello as the emcee of a film screening; in said film (black & white, of course) is where we see Don Giovanni, dressed in a way that makes me think of Zorro. So, that means that sometimes Dmitri Hvorostovsky is talking to himself through a movie screen. Plus, there’s a pretty crazy plot twist at the end.

Enjoy!