Don Giovanni': Masterpiece Written by Mozart
Don Giovanni was a two-act opera that music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte premiered in the Prague National Theatre on October 29th, 1787. The opera talked about Don Giovanni, who, based on the well-known legend of Don Juan in Western Europe, was a licentious and womanizing nobleman. He had gone about seducing women, getting into trouble, and had run up many debts. He had even invited the Commendatore whom he had slain to dine together, which let him drive to the hell. Mozart classified the Opera as Opera Buffa, which, although called comedy, combines elements of comedy, tragedy, and even supernatural events. When Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote the play, he emphasized Don Giovanni's failure to pursue women.
Mozart was a poor composer who had written the opera when it was seldom popular in Prague. For his part, he wanted to sing the voice of Don Giovanni and evoke it in everyone's heart. The opera combined the elements of life and philosophy and focused on the psychological characterization of the characters, which set a precedent for the music psychological drama, which developed significantly in the 19th century. “Statistics compiled by Peter Branscombe show that between 1781 and 1791 Mozart was the seventh most performed composer on the Viennese operatic stage”.
Mozart used lots of quotations in Don Giovanni, such as “Una cosa rara” from Vincente Martin y Soler, “Fra I due litigant il terzo gode” from Giuseppe Sarti, and “The Marriage of Figaro” from Mozart himself, “it seems fair to assume that the identification of these quotations would, in itself, have been a delight for Mozart’s audience”. In the meanwhile, it is a testament to the extraordinary influence of Mozart's works in contemporary times as “all three of Mozart’s source operas, not just Figaro, would have been particularly well-known to the composer’s audience”.
Act two: The Finale of the opera depicted that in Don Giovanni's house. He was eating alone, with Leporello waiting on him while the band plays, and Leporello sneaks away to eat. Elvira came in and asked Don Giovanni to repent, but he did not listen and laughed at her. Elvira ran outside and screamed. Don Giovanni opened the door, the Commendatore came in, ignored Giovanni's invitation to dinner, demanded Giovanni’s confession, but he refused. Finally, he went to hell with fear.
The Scene XIII tells the story of Don Giovanni's aristocratic arrogance and arrogance, which shown as the repetition of “Nel veder I miei bocconi, gli par proprio di svenir, gli par proprio di svenir”. Also, “che bocconi da gigante, mipar proprio di svenir, mi par proprio di svenir” shows the servant, Leporello’s Dissatisfaction with his master. Tafelmusik, as an accompaniment, is known as table-music and is usually used at banquets and is also the term for music played at banquets. This scene shows the extravagance of Don Giovanni's aristocrats who had to pay the orchestra to perform while he ate, and he needs others to feed his vanity as he asked Leporello: “Che ti par del bel concerto?”, then Leporello answered him with grudgingly praise: “E con forme, e conforme al vostro metro”.
Scene 15 tells the story of Don Giovanni in graveyard jokingly invited a death knight who looked like the Commendatore to dinner, which was invited to come to the story. The long sound of accompaniment and diminished chord for the presence of the Commendatore built the atmosphere of terror, see Commendatore at that moment, he was amazed at the same time, also occupied his mind fear, but he is still my composure, ordered Leporello to prepare a dinner for Commendatore. In contrast to Don Giovanni, who pretended to be calm, the squire Leporello was a bit timid as he said: “ah, padron, ah, padron, ah, padron, siam tutti morti” as if he had lost all his energy to Don Giovanni.
Don Giovanni, perhaps the only character in opera history, has gone crazy in his pursuit of women, whether it was the rude and ignorant maid of a village or the daughter of a noble family. Furthermore, he never showed the slightest sign of weariness or regret. People could say that he was almost a villain, but he never lost the audience's sympathy. Mozart's music did not allow people to stand in opposition to Don Giovanni, even after he refused to repent and even threatened to seduce the virgin. The character's steadfast stance is memorable, linking Don Giovanni's stance to romantic ideals of beauty. When the Emperor questioned the opera: “That opera is divine; I should even venture that it is more beautiful than Figaro. But such music is not meat for the teeth of my Viennese”, Da Ponte “reported the remark to Mozart, who replied quietly: ‘Give them time to chew on it’ ”.
'Don Giovanni' is usually grouped in the ranks of Mozart's three most successful Italian comic operas, but it is, by comparison, the least comic. While certain scenes (such as the beating of Masetto) and individual characters (especially Reporello) are comic, Mozart, in general, offers music of fear, thriller, and magic. The tone extends from the overture to the finale. Especially at the end, when Reporello hums the tune of 'The Marriage of Figaro,' the audience presumably smiles and applauds, but soon the music changes and the presence of the stone guest is sure to keep many of the audience's smiles on their faces until Don Giovanni falls into hell.
Even now, Don Giovanni still has a lot to learn, and he brings us to a more profound Mozart. Da Ponte and Mozart teamed up to write about his dual personality, and the opera provided more possibilities for the character's personality. In terms of the characterization and fate of the characters in the play, Mozart wrote a masterpiece that was rarely seen in his operas and had considerable depth of thinking and exploration of human nature.
