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Don Giovanni (1801) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Background
By the time of Mozart and Da Ponte’s collaboration on Don Giovanni, the Don Juan legend had been represented in musical entertainments and on the popular stage a number of times. Although it was an unusual topic for Viennese court opera, the retelling of the Don Juan story was immensely appealing for the Italian troupe in Prague. Don Giovanni did eventually make its way to Vienna, but the opera did not meet the same success it had received in Prague.
Da Ponte turned to Bertati’s Don Giovanni (with music by Giuseppe Gazzaniga) that had premiered in Venice on 5 February 1787. Molière’s Dom Juan, Gluck’s ballet Don Juan (1761), and the familiar versions from the popular theater provided further inspiration. The famous dance scene at the end of the second act, in which three different tunes sound simultaneously, recalls a ballroom scene in the Gluck ballet, and is but one of many references to other works. Mozart used the party scene, which features an onstage wind ensemble, as a witty opportunity to reference popular contemporary works, including Martín y Soler’s immensely popular (and rival) Una cosa rara, Sarti’s Fra I due litiganti, and even his own Le nozze di Figaro.
Giovanni’s descent into hell at the end of the opera may seem far removed from the comic nature of opera buffa, however, Giovanni’s demise serves as a moral lesson and a vindication of those whom he exploited. Don Giovanni was certainly not the only opera to mix comedic and serious elements: Grétry’s Raoul Barbe-bleue (1789) caused quite a shock in Paris for its departure from the lighthearted nature of opéra-comique.
Plot
At the beginning of the first act, Leporello is looking out for his master, Don Giovanni, who has tried to seduce Donna Anna. The scorned woman is now trying to catch Giovanni, and her father (the Commendatore) confronts him. During a fight, the Commedatore dies; Giovanni and Leporello slip away before Anna discovers her father’s lifeless body. When Don Ottavio proposes to Anna, he must promise to help her avenge her father. The next scene finds Donna Elvira angrily searching for Giovanni, and after he escapes, Leporello catalogs the many conquests of his master, to Elvira’s dismay. Giovanni’s antics continue as he pursues the peasant bride Zerlina before her wedding to Masetto. Although Zerlina feels loyalty to Masetto, she is unable to resist Giovanni. At this point, Anna and Ottavio do not realize that Giovanni is the man responsible for the Commendatore’s death, and they befriend him. However, Elvira warns Anna about the young rake. Giovanni dismisses Elvira as insane, but Anna and Ottavio eventually realize the truth of Elvira’s claim. In the meantime, Zerlina reaffirms her love for Masetto, and everyone gathers for a celebratory dance. Giovanni, in disguise, is still wooing Elvira before he is unmasked.
Leporello tries to abandon his post as Giovanni’s servant as Act Two begins. Giovanni convinces his servant to appear in disguise in order to seduce Elvira. At the same time, Giovanni is wooing Zerlina, but Masetto and some other peasants are angrily looking for Giovanni. In his own disguise, Giovanni misleads the search party when they ask him where to find their target. When Leporello (still dressed as Giovanni) is captured, he reveals his true identity and then escapes. Giovanni and Leporello are reunited in a cemetery where they encounter a statue of the Commendatore. Leporello is instructed to invite the statue to dinner, and in an implausible moment, the Commendatore accepts. As Giovanni is sitting down to dinner, Elvira—still in love with the seducer—arrives to plead that he change his ways. Giovanni refuses, however, and as Elvira is exiting, she encounters the “stone guest.” Even with the prospect of death (the Commendatore’s revenge), Giovanni will not give up his ways, and demons drag his burning body to hell. The other characters then rejoice in Giovanni’s demise and in planning their futures. Masetto and Zerlina decide to wed, and Anna consents to marry Ottavio after one year. Elvira heads to a convent, while Leporello resolves to search for a new master.
Bibliography
Title from title page: IL DISSOLUTO PUNITO / osia / IL DON GIOVANNI /
Dramma giocoso in due Atti
Genre: Opera buffa
Siglum from Mozart thematic catalog: KV 527
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1791
Librettist: Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1749-1838
Libretto based on: The Don Juan legend, Bertati’s Don Giovanni libretto, and Molière’s Dom Juan
Setting: A Spanish town (Seville), in the sixteenth century
Premiere: Prague, National Theatre, 29 October 1787
First published: Leipzig: Breitkopf and Härtel.
Volume in the UNT Collection: Breitkopf and Härtel
For further information on Don Giovanni, see:
Allanbrook, Wye Jamison. Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Heartz, Daniel. “Mozart and Da Ponte.” Musical Quarterly 79 (1995): 700-18.
________. Mozart’s Operas. Edited with contributing essays by Thomas Bauman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
Hunter, Mary. The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart’s Vienna: A Poetics of Entertainment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Hunter, Mary and James Webster, ed. Opera buffa in Mozart’s Vienna. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Platoff, John. Music and Drama in the Opera Buffa Finale: Mozart and His Contemporaries in Vienna, 1781-1790. Ph.d. diss.: University of Pennsylvania, 1984.
Rabin, Ronald J. Mozart, Da Ponte, and the Dramaturgy of Opera Buffa. Ph.d. diss.: Cornell University, 1996.
Rushton, Julian. “Don Giovanni (ii).” In Grove Music Online. Edited by Laura Macy. Accessed 17 December 2003. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
________. W. A. Mozart: Don Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Physical
Volume 1
Dimensions: 31.8 x 24 cm.
Conservation: Light foxing throughout; minor buckling in middle of volume.
Binding: Black clothbound, faded; pealing on bumped corners; brown cloth spine with gilt letters.
Comments: Bookplate on front pastedown: Ex Libris Alfred Einstein; "First Edition" handwritten on first page; small sticker on back pastedown of prior owner
Volume 2
Dimensions: 31.8 x 24 cm.
Conservation: Light foxing throughout; minor buckling in middle of volume. Final page has tear across staves; affects last note in each system.
Binding: Black clothbound, faded; pealing on bumped corners; brown cloth spine with gilt letters.
Comments: Bookplate on front pastedown: Ex Libris Alfred Einstein; "First Edition" handwritten on first page; small sticker on back pastedown of prior owner
Document
This item exists in multiple volumes. Please use the links below in Related Content to access the lo-res PDF scans.