Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts by the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . Its full original title, in Italian, was Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni (The Rake Punished, or the Don Juan). The libretto (text) by Lorenzo da Ponte was based on the Spanish legend of the womanizing rogue Don Juan. This story had already been the subject of an opera by the Italian composer Giuseppe Gazzaniga, to a libretto by Giovanni Bertati. Gazzaniga’s opera was staged only a few months before Mozart’s, and Da Ponte evidently copied some of the details of his text for Mozart from the work of Bertati. The Mozart Don Giovanni was first performed in Prague (in what is now the Czech Republic) on Oct. 29, 1787. Don Giovanni has often been called the greatest opera ever composed.
Loading the player...Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni has become the best-known version of the legend about Don Juan. The action takes place in and near Seville, Spain. In the opening scene, Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant, is seen waiting in front of the house of Donna Anna for his master to come out. Don Giovanni flees from Donna Anna’s home after trying to seduce her. Her father, the Commendatore, responds to his daughter’s cries for help, and Don Giovanni kills him in a duel. Donna Anna and her fiance, Don Ottavio, discover the corpse of the Commendatore and swear vengeance on Don Giovanni.
Loading the player...Opera: Classical
Donna Elvira, a former lover of Don Giovanni, comes looking for him. He runs off, leaving Leporello to face her. In one of the opera’s most famous arias (vocal solos), Leporello unveils to Donna Elvira the catalogue of Don Giovanni’s sexual conquests, and she, too, swears vengeance upon him.
The opera then unfolds further instances of Don Giovanni’s immoral behavior. Eventually, Don Giovanni and Leporello encounter each other in a graveyard, where a marble statue of the Commendatore appears to speak to them. Don Giovanni cheerfully invites the statue to dinner. In the final scene of the opera, the statue arrives and urges Don Giovanni to abandon his sinful ways. When Don Giovanni refuses, the scene is enveloped in smoke and fire as he disappears into hell, dragged off by a chorus of demons. Leporello survives to tell the tale, and the opera ends with the cast singing to the audience and drawing the obvious moral.
The mixture of comic and serious qualities of Don Giovanni has always fascinated audiences. Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant, provides most of the comedy, in contrast wih the overly intense emotions of Donna Elvira and the obsession with vengeance displayed by Donna Anna. In addition to many beautiful arias, Don Giovanni has highly dramatic recitatives (parts of the text sung in simple, speechlike style) and long, complicated ensembles (music sung by two or more singers). In one scene in Act I, three orchestras onstage perform three different dance numbers at the same time. While the three onstage orchestras play, the opera orchestra in the pit accompanies the singers.
