Opera "Don Juan": content, video, interesting facts, history

V.A. Mozart opera "Don Juan"

At the heart of Mozart's opera "Don Juan" is the legend of a daring and courageous tempter, who easily conquered women's hearts. Since its inception, this story has occupied the minds of many great writers and composers who constantly turned to it. It is noteworthy that only the coloring of the main character changed, sometimes he was described as a criminal and rude villain, who in the final received a well-deserved punishment. But sometimes the authors identified completely different features of Don Juan, his dexterity, wit, attractiveness and courage, with which he fights with obsolete moral norms.

What is the main character in the opera Mozart? The composer himself called the work a cheerful drama in which the tragic and the comic, the everyday and the sublime are intertwined with particular elegance. The opera is full of expressive numbers, revealing the true feelings of the characters, traditional scenes with disguises and even contains a scene of fatal retribution. And Don Juan appears before us as a bold, charming and unusually energetic hero.

Summary of Mozart's opera "Don Juan"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary of "Don Juan"

Don Juan is trying to seduce Anna, another beauty, disguised as her fiance, Don Ottavio. The father of the deceived Donna, the Commander, challenges the offender to a duel, but is defeated. This all does not stop Don-Juan, who goes further in search of adventure. Now he was interested in the young bride Zerlina, and the hero is trying to take her right from under the nose of the groom Mazetto. Despite all the cunning and agility, he is left with nothing, because the girl is adamant and remains faithful to her narrowed.

But Don-Juan himself is waiting for an unpleasant surprise, deceived donna Elvira, and also donna Anna and her fiancé want to take revenge on the seducer and try to grab him. But with these troubles, the protagonist copes with enviable dexterity. To prove his fearlessness, he invites to dinner the statue of the Commander killed by him. At the height of the meal, an invited guest appears and carries Don-Juan, who refused to repent, underground. The opera ends with the triumph of the avengers, rejoicing that the villain still has been punished.

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Interesting Facts

• Interestingly, many artists considered this work the greatest work in the history of music. However, another Viennese classic L. Beethoven singled out all the same "The Magic Flute"because he considered the plot of" Don Juan "immoral.
• The opera was written in a relatively short time, since the order was received in May 1787, and the premiere was held in October of the same year. The overture was written on the eve of the performance.
• It is often possible to meet the legend that at the time of writing the opera, the composer and the librettist met in Prague with Casanova to get advice, but this fact is not documented.

• Librettist Lorenzo da Ponte in his screenplay for the opera decided to write two of his favorite Italian products: Marzimino wine and Dzhiunkata cheese.
• Everyone knows the name of the opera "Don Juan" - originally it was not like that. The original work was called "The punished libertine, or Don Juan."
• In his diaries, Lorenzo da Ponte recalled an interesting situation that inspired him while composing the libretto for the opera. He wrote that he worked at the desk for about twelve hours in a row. Lorenzo was surrounded by Tokay wine, ink and cigarette case. At that time, a mother lived in his house with a charming daughter of sixteen, helping with domestic issues. He regretted that he could not treat her like a daughter. Every time after Lorenzo used the bell (he said he did it often, especially when the muse left him), this girl appeared in his room. She came either with a biscuit, or with a cup of coffee, or simply appeared without everything. Lorenzo wrote that she had a sweet face, she was always alive, always smiled, and most importantly, she did everything exactly as the writer needed: after such "meetings", his inspiration gained new power, and great solutions were found. This passage from the diary shows that Da Ponte himself was a frivolous and loving man, like Don Juan.

• Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto in less than a month.
• The case is fixed as Mozart, dissatisfied with the work of an opera diva performing the part of Zerlina, during the rehearsal he personally appeared on the stage. He did not like the reaction of the actress to the proposal of Don Juan during the ball, which was quite frank and even obscene. The author went up to the stage, went up to the singer and whispered something in her ear, and then slapped the pope. The answer did not take long to wait: a stunned actress kicked the composer. Then, satisfied with the act of the diva, the maestro said that he expected such a reaction, because she was natural and real, and not something that the singer had previously portrayed.
• Surprisingly, the premiere of the opera was successful and caused positive impressions from the public. Many singers did not learn the parts, as the composer finished writing them in recent days, and the artists received notes right before the start of the performance.

Popular arias

Aria Leporello "Madamina, il catalogo e questo" - to listen

Don Juan's aria "Fin ch'han dal vino" - listen

Donna Anna's aria "Ah No, Mio Bene! ... Non Mi Dir" - to listen

Duettino of Don Juan and Zerlina "La ci darem la mano" - listen

Music

Dramma giocosa - the author gave this definition to his opera. Fun drama, or, there is still a translation, a tragicomedy - it turned out "Don Juan". This definition fully reveals the essence and the whole picture of the work: the interweaving of the tragic and the comic, the sublime and the everyday. These moments show the musical composition of life and truthful. Before Mozart, no one had ever composed such comic operas, with such an extraordinary intensity of passion.

The composer perfectly embodies the characters with the help of musical and psychological characteristics, which he mastered perfectly. Each aria is bright and expressive, with a certain feeling. The relationship between the characters is described musically subtle, and the disclosure of these relationships is observed in a series of ensembles. "Don Juan" is very seriously thought out dramaturgically, since the basic construction of actions comes from juxtaposing opposing principles, for example: Don Juan and Commander, where the first life is raging, and in the second there is a mortal cold.

Mozart's image of Don Juan is not simple and many-sided. Despite the fact that the musical genius of the libertine "kills", he still tries to ennoble him. So, we see Don Juan a brave, charming, in which infinite vital energy flows. Other operatic characters: Leporello - a comrade who always with his master, then admires him, does not approve of his actions, wonderful donna: Anna, Elvira, Cerlin and others - in the drama they are subordinate to their superiors. All actions, thoughts, feelings, desires of these characters are closely intertwined with the actions of the main character of the libertine.

Psychological musical drama consists of two actions, at the end of each a large final scene. In the composition, there is a constant change of vocal-musical scenes for recitatives, low male voices - in advantage, a lot of pictures with disguises and fights.

The story of the creation of "Don Juan"

It may seem that the plot is based on historical data, with a real character. But in fact, Don Juan is a legend. The medieval, Spanish myth of a fearless man who was impudent, clever, always sought adventure and loved to seduce a lady. This fiction was very famous in Europe.

Premiere of the opera V.A. Mozart "Figaro's Wedding"with a triumph took place in the Prague Theater. After the successful show" Wedding ", the theater ordered a new musical and vocal work from the composer (the entrepreneur Pascual Bondini was the initiator and sponsor). Mozart chose the story of Don Juan for the new opera. Only 6 months the genius wrote music. Having started work in May 1787, the performance was ready for the premiere at the end of October. Interestingly, the production in Vienna (May 1788) took place with some musical changes by the author.

Lorenzo da Ponte is a librettist who worked on the text for the musical work of Mozart. Classic libretto: Italian, comedic plan. But Wolfgang Amadeus with his music went beyond the comedy. He created a wonderful, deep opera: passionate, pushing sharp characters.

For Mozart and da Ponte, the work on the opera was not painful, on the contrary, it was easy. The composer believed that the premiere of the opera was such a huge success that there is nowhere else to go.

Productions

On October 29, 1787, Prague and its inhabitants saw the premiere of the play "Don Juan". Initially, it was planned to show the opera 15 days earlier, but the performing staff did not have time to complete their roles, and the composer himself did not finish some notes, so he had to work almost the last night before the premiere, and the singers themselves saw their parts before the performance. Even with all these shortcomings and incidents, the opera was a huge success.

The second production was seen by Vienna on May 7, 1788, in the amended version. By that time, Mozart had added several numbers, and some had removed them from the score. At the end of the musical drama Don Juan was dying.

The premiere in Russia took place on April 21, 1828. The first city that staged this opera was St. Petersburg (Bolshoi Theater). A.K. Scheller translated the text from the original into Russian, A. Kanoppi was engaged in scenery. Vasily Samoilov, Sergey Baikov, Alexander Ivanov, Maria Shelikhova, Matvey Shuvalov, Ninfodor Semenova and other opera singers were honored to participate in the first Russian production. The Bolshoi Theater of Moscow first saw the premiere of Don Juan at the end of January 1839.

At the moment, musical drama is very popular and performed in all countries of the world. The most famous theaters with pleasure put on performances on "Don Juan", but in a modern look. Costumes, scenery and other attributes are already 21 centuries, not 19.

In conclusion, I want to say that this drama is relevant in our time, which is why it is so popular and in demand. Great Mozart together with Lorenzo da Ponte, they created an eternal piece of music that will also often be put on the world scenes over the centuries. "Don Juan"is one of the pinnacles of 18th century operatic art and rightfully belongs to the repertoire of many musical theaters in the world. We suggest you to familiarize yourself with the great work of a genius, to see the opera Don Juan and to discover the mysterious hero seducer from a new side.

We are pleased to offer opera singers and a symphony orchestra to perform arias and excerpts from the opera. "Don Juan" at your event.