Il dissoluto punito, o sia il Don Giovanni
The Dissolute Punished, or Don Juan
Drama giocoso in two acts

Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte
Premiere: Prague, October 29, 1787

Cast:
Don Giovanni, nobleman, a libertine (baritone)
Leporello, his servant (bass)
Donna Anna, fiancé of Don Ottavio (soprano)
Commendatore, father of Donna Anna (bass)
Don Ottavio, nobleman betrothed to Donna Anna (tenor)
Donna Elvira, jilted lover of Giovanni (soprano)
Masetto, peasant bridegroom (bass)
Zerlina, peasant girl betrothed to Masetto (soprano)

Orchestra: 
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons
2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani
mandolin, strings

Program Notes by Martin Pearlman

The popular story of the amorous adventures and demise of Don Juan is, like Faust, a modern myth.  The first known dramatization dates from the early seventeenth century, when the prolific Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina, drawing on elements of Spanish folklore, first introduced the character of Don Juan, as well as many of the adventures and characters that became common in later retellings of the story.  While the general lines of the story were further developed in folk and commedia dell'arte productions, Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte based his libretto mainly on literary sources, particularly on plays by Molière and Bertati.  The latter was set to music as another Don Giovanni opera by the composer Gazzaniga and was currently playing in Venice at the time that Mozart and Da Ponte decided to use the story themselves. 

The commission for Mozart and Da Ponte to write a new opera followed their enormous success with The Marriage of Figaro, which had been premiered  in Prague in 1786.  Mozart worked on Don Giovanni on and off during 1787 and completed it shortly before the first performance, which took place in Prague on October 29 of that year.  The production was an enormous success, and it was followed in the spring of 1788 by a second production mounted in Vienna.

Don Giovanni has remained popular ever since its premiere, but over the years, it has been adapted in many different ways to suit local tastes.  Mozart's opera quickly became popular in Germany, but, as it did so, it took on many of the bawdy folk traditions of the original story.  It was often presented as a singspiel, with spoken texts replacing the recitatives.  New scenes were interpolated, names were changed, and the story was turned into a farce.  At the Paris Opera, on the other hand, Berlioz recounts a performance which added French ballets and entr'actes, as well as a large chorus for the final scene.  In some performances, voice parts were changed, Don Giovanni becoming a tenor and Ottavio a soprano.  In one London performance, an ophicleide solo made its way into the supper music in the second act finale.  Singers often added showy bel canto cadenzas.  Almost universally in the nineteenth century, the moralizing final scene was omitted, being considered silly eighteenth-century fluff after the dramatic damnation of the Don.  In modern times, the opera has been staged in various ways as a contemporary drama, and it has been analyzed as a Wagnerian music drama, as well as a Freudian psychodrama.  As with many great works, Don Giovanni has been a mirror that can reflect -- or withstand -- the tastes of the times.

The Prague and Vienna versions

The music of Don Giovanni, as it is normally heard today, is an amalgam of the two different versions of the work that Mozart and Da Ponte made for Prague and Vienna.  The result is something which is often musically and dramatically quite different from anything that they themselves ever produced. 

For the second production, the one in Vienna, Mozart and Da Ponte had to tailor the opera to suit a new cast.  They made several important changes:

1. A new aria, Dalla sua pace, was written for the tenor Morella, who evidently was not comfortable with the higher Il mio tesoro.  The new aria was inserted into the first act and the original Il mio tesoro was omitted.  The two arias were intended for two different singers in different productions and were not heard in the same performance.

2. Responding to the demands of the new Donna Elvira, Mozart and Da Ponte added a dramatic scene for her in the second act, which included her well-known aria Mi tradi.

3. A buffo duet for Zerlina and Leporello, as well as connecting recitatives, were added in the second act.

4. Probably to compensate for the new additions, especially to the second act, passages were cut out of certain other arias and ensembles to shortened them.

Modern productions often include the tenor arias from both Mozart versions.  They also include the Donna Elvira scene, but do not cut the various passages in other numbers.  (The duet for Zerlina and Leporello is the one bit of music that is often not done.)  Thus, there is generally more music in the opera than would have been heard in the early productions. 

The reason that most productions today combine music from two different versions of the opera is obvious: it is all great music.  However, doing so can create dramatic problems.  It has often been remarked that the second act of Don Giovanni does not have the same dramatic flow as the first.  The problem stems in part from the way the libretto strings together a series of episodes, but it is compounded by adding extra arias to the opera.  When Mozart and Da Ponte found themselves with too much music in their Vienna production (although it was still less than we normally hear today), they tried to move the drama along by making various cuts.  We cannot know for certain which version they preferred, but we do know that they never intended all the music written for both versions of this opera to be heard in the same performance. 

Adhering to either the original Prague version or the later Vienna revision is not so much a matter of "omitting" music but rather of not adding it.  While doing so can improve the pace of the drama, it may mean not hearing certain well-known arias.  That is a choice that each production must make.  Boston Baroque's performances have followed the original Prague version.

Orchestration Chart

This chart gives an overview of the work, showing which soloists and instruments are in each movement. It has also been useful in planning rehearsals, since one can see at a glance all the music that a particular musician plays. Red X's indicate major solo moments for a singer. An X in parentheses indicates that the use of that instrument is ad libitum.

This is a preview of the beginning of the chart. You can download or view a PDF of the whole chart here.

Boston Baroque Performances

Don Giovanni, K. 527

October 13 & 14, 2006
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Sam Helfrich, stage director

Soloists:
Nathan Berg - Don Giovanni 
Mark Schnaible - Leporello 
Nicolle Foland - Donna Anna 
Patrick Miller - Don Ottavio 
Amy Burton - Donna Elvira 
Heidi Stober - Zerlina  
Anton Belov - Masetto 
Gustav Andreassen - Il Commendatore 

April 25, 1997
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
April 24, 1997
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor

Soloists:
Nathan Gunn - Don Giovanni 
Nathan Berg - Leporello 
Sally Wolf - Donna Anna 
Lynton Atkinson - Don Ottavio 
Christine Goerke - Donna Elvira 
Amy Burton - Zerlina
Brett Polegato - Masetto
Edward Russell - Il Commendatore

April 11, 1986
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor

Soloists:
James Maddalena - Don Giovanni 
Matthew Lau - Leporello 
Karen Winner - Donna Anna 
Frank Kelley - Don Ottavio 
Sarah Reese - Donna Elvira 
Sharon Baker - Zerlina  
James Kleyla - Masetto 
Kenneth Bell - Il Commendatore 

Arias from Don Giovanni

January 1, 1991
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor

Soloists:
Patrice Michaels Bedi, soprano
Matthew Lau, bass

Overture to Don Giovanni

April 8, 1988
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor

Excerpts from Mozart's and Gazzaniga's Don Giovanni operas

February 28, 1987
Bates College, Lewiston, ME
Martin Pearlman, conductor

Soloists:
Sharon Baker, soprano
Lorraine Hunt, mezzo-soprano
James Maddalena, baritone
Frank Kelley, tenor
Elmore James, bass

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