Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Lorenzo Da Ponte
Don Giovanni/Composers
Don Giovanni, in full The Libertine Punished; or, Don Giovanni, Italian Il dissoluto punito; ossia, il Don Giovanni, opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Italian libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte) that premiered at the original National Theatre in Prague on October 29, 1787.
When was Don Giovanni written?
1787
Don Giovanni/Written
Premiered in 1787 in Prague, it is a masterpiece since it was created. Composed during the last years of Mozart’s life, it represents one of the composer’s greatest successes. Today, Don Giovanni is still charming us…
Did Mozart write Don Giovanni the morning it premiered?
Despite a few drinks in his system, or perhaps because of them, Mozart managed to compose a masterful overture the night before “Don Giovanni’s” premiere. On the night of the premiere, copyists had just finished making copies of this hastily written overture before the performance.
When did Mozart composed Don Giovanni?
October 1787
Composed October 1787. First performance: October 29, 1787, Teatro di Praga, Prague. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, conductor.
Who is Don Giovanni based on?
Don Juan Tenorio
Supposedly based on 14th-century Seville nobleman, Don Juan Tenorio, who allegedly abducted the daughter of a military commander and murdered him. Franciscan monks are thought to have killed him but claimed he had been cast into hell by the commander’s memorial effigy.
Why is Don Giovanni considered a masterpiece?
Don Giovanni has been widely regarded as the greatest opera ever composed. That’s a pretty bold statement, but however you rank it, Mozart’s opera is a brilliant combination of stark human tragedy and touching comedy, set to music of limitless genius.
What is the story behind Don Giovanni?
Mozart’s outrageous comedy tells the tale of an incorrigible young playboy who blazes a path to his own destruction in a single day. Based on the story of Don Juan, Don Giovanni follows an irresistible (yet irresponsible and amoral) youth who is loved by women almost as universally as he loves them.
Did Mozart inspired Beethoven?
Indeed, Lewis Lockwood writes, “Just as Mozart had once told his father that he was ‘soaked in music’, so Beethoven was soaked in Mozart.” In Beethoven’s early efforts to compose, he was so strongly inspired by Mozart that once he worried that he had plagiarized him by mistake.
Are Don Juan and Don Giovanni the same?
Don Juan (Spanish pronounced [doŋˈxwan]), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women.
Why is Mozart considered a child prodigy?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the child prodigy par excellence, playing songs on the harpsichord at four years old and composing simple music at five. So there is no shortage of anecdotes about the young Mozart’s astonishing musical dexterity, memory, and creativity in composition.
What does the ghost of the Commendatore say to Don Giovanni when he appears in the finale?
Don Ottavio is now convinced that Don Giovanni murdered Donna Anna’s father (the deceased Commendatore). He swears vengeance (“Il mio tesoro” – “My treasure” – though in the Vienna version this was cut). In the Vienna production of the opera, Zerlina follows Leporello and recaptures him.
Did Beethoven go deaf?
Beethoven first noticed difficulties with his hearing decades earlier, sometime in 1798, when he was about 28. By the time he was 44 or 45, he was totally deaf and unable to converse unless he passed written notes back and forth to his colleagues, visitors and friends. He died in 1827 at the age of 56.
