Mozart Opera Don Giovanni

Classical Music / Opera 

A Unique Blend of Comic and Serious Opera

Four of about twenty two operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have remained extremely popular on stage and record. One of them is Don Giovanni. 

Don Giovanni is in two Acts, approximately two hours and thirty minutes. Libretto is in Italian by Lorenzo da Ponte after Giovanni Bertati's libretto for Giuseppe Gazzaniga's  The Stone Guest, the contemporary version of the Don Juan legends.It was first performed 
 
First performance: National Theatre, Prague, in October 29, 1787. Subtitled "drama giocoso," the opera blends comedy, melodrama, and supernatural elements. In Vienna, it was first performed May 7, 1788.

Although this opera is often classified as comic, it's a blend of comic (buffa) and serious (seria), a kind of in between. Perhaps the success of this opera is the unique blending of both, aside from the fascinating character of Don Juan himself, who despite his scandalous ways still endeared him to women and perhaps became a challenge to the men in those days. Mozart wrote this for Prague, the place that dearly loved him and his music. This version of the Don Juan legend had been so viewed and considered by a number of known writers in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, and it was one of Mozart's works to enjoy high prestige throughout the 19^th century, that it attracted much literary attention. Doubtless this was because it was seen as a romantic work and, among other reasons, with its many fine arias shared by major characters, it has also become a vehicle for the great stars those times, as well, has continued this day.   

 

Setting:  Seville, Spain and neighborhood in the early 17^th century.

 

The Characters:

The Commendatore     (Bass)

Donna Anna, His daughter     (Soprano)

Don Ottavio, Her Betrothed     (Tenor)

Don Giovanni, A young nobleman     (Baritone)

Leporello, Giovanni's servant     (Bass)

Donna Elvira, A lady     (Soprano)

Masetto, A peasant     (Baritone)

Zerlina, Massetto's betrothed     (Soprano)

Brief Synopsis: 

Don Giovanni, a young nobleman, after a life of amorous conquests, meets defeat in his three encounters: with Donna Elvira, whom he has deserted but who still follows him; with Donna Anna, whose father, the Commendatore, Giovanni kills in escaping from an unsuccessful attempt at seduction and as a result postpones her marriage to Don Ottavio; and with Zerlina, whom he vainly tries to lure from her betrothed, the peasant Masetto. 

All three women vow vengeance on the Don and his harassed servant Leporello. Later, however, Elvira weakens in her resolution and attempts reconciliation with hope that the Don reforms. 

Don Giovanni's destruction and deliverance to hell are effected by the cemetery statue of the Commendatore, who had accepted the libertine's invitation to supper.    

 

 

Don Giovanni the Film:

 

Don Giovanni  (film) is a 1979 French-Italian film directed by Joseph Losey. It is an adaptation of Wolfgang A. Mozart's classic 1787 opera Don Giovanni, based on the Don Juan legend of a seducer, destroyed by his excesses. The opera itself has been called one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces". The film stars Ruggero Raimondi in the title role, and the conductor is Lorin Maazel. Nearly three decades after the film's release, Nicholas Wapshott called it a "near perfect amalgamation of opera and the screen". (Source: Wiki)

 

 

More Mozart Don Giovanni links:  

 

Mozart - Don Giovanni - Overture

From the Estates Theatre, Prague, 2006 - Gala Concert for the 250th anniversary of W.A. Mozart's birth

Manfred Honeck conducting The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

 

W.A. MOZART, 'Don Giovanni a cenar teco', Atto II (Finale, excerpt).YouTube, uploaded by Francis Moezii. DIRECTOR: Joseph Walton LOSEY Paris National Opera Orchestra Conductor : LORIN MAAZEL.
Don Giovanni : Roggero RAIMONDI, Baritone Leporello : José van DAM, Bass-Baritone Il Commendatore : John MACURDY, Bass.

 

Mozart - Don Giovanni dramma giocoso K. 527 (Herbert von Karajan, Salzburg Festival, 1987). One of the last opera productions under the baton of Herbert von Karajan, directed by Michael Hampe. The entire performance is presented by the Eliette und Herbert von Karajan Institut.

  

Mozart - Don Giovanni - Commendatore Scene - Sir Neville Marriner conducting The Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields Orchestra.  In the image: Ruggero Raimondi as Don Giovanni in Joseph's Losey's 1979 screen adaptation of Mozart's masterpiece "Don Giovanni".

Video Credit:

Mozart's Opera Don Giovanni. The 1988 Royal Opera House, Covent Gardon production conducted by Colin Davis. Don Giovanni: Thomas Allen Donna Elvira: Kiri Te Kanawa Leporello: Stafford Dean Donna Anna: Makvala Kasrashvili Il commendatore: Gwynne Howell Don Ottavio: Stuart Burrows Zerlina: Joan Rodgers Masetto: Gordon Sandison . Uploaded by KiriOnLine, a Fan Site of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.  Accessed October 29, 2020.

Note: This post is a very brief synopsis. My longer article was written for Suite101.com, published April 14 2007. / Tel  


Resources: 

1. Martin, Nicholas Ivor.  The Da Capo Opera Manual.  Da Capo Press, New York. 1997. 

2. Quaintance Eaton's Opera Production A Handbook, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1962.

 

 

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