Jacopo Spirei’s belief in a formula for social change—that if there was more opera in the world, there would be less crime—has fueled his passion for an art form that he sees not as an elitist luxury but as a human necessity. Individuals thwarted in love and life, he observes, lash out at things they cannot understand, accept or change. Opera can hold up a mirror that allows people to see that in themselves. “Self-deception is a most powerful thing,” he says, sipping coffee in the suitably theatrical setting of London’s gothic St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, “and opera is full of self-deception.”

Spirei’s latest production, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, with which he makes his debut at the San Francisco Opera from June 4 to 30, has its share of self-deceivers—among them the lascivious title character, Don Juan, and the many lovers deluded by their infatuation with him. Spirei has a special relationship with the composer and by next year will have directed three of his operas at the Salzburger Landestheater.

Spirei’s Giovanni in San Francisco is fellow Italian Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, something of a go-to Don since he first sang the role in Berlin and Vienna in 2010; at Milan’s La Scala the following year; and then in Italy’s Verona, London, San Diego, Los Angeles and Salzburg, Austria. The two have not worked together before, but the intensive rehearsal period makes short work of introductions. “We’re almost like animals, sniffing each other,” says Spirei. “In the U.S., because most theater is privately funded, you don’t always have the luxury of six weeks’ rehearsal.”

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