The punished libertine entered the world stage 235 years ago
The premiere of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni took place in the Nostic Theater in Prague.
In October 1787, Prague experienced a great cultural and social event. 29th October took place in the Stavovský (then Nosticov) theater the world premiere of the opera Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartone of the greatest musical geniuses of all time.
The full title of the two-act opera was Dissoluto punito ossia il Don Giovanni (The Punished Prodigal or Don Giovanni) and Mozart wrote it for the libretto Lorenzo da Ponte. The subject of the work which Mozart donated to the Estates Theater in Pragueis the life and death of a seducer, also known in literature as Don Juan. When composing the work, the authors used the old legend about Don Juan, which was first literary processed by the Madrid priest Gabriel Tellez, who wrote around 400 plays under the pseudonym Tirso de Molina (1571–1648). The famous dramatists Carlo Goldoni and Moliére also worked on the Juan material.
Opera Don Giovanni it is often called the “opera of operas”, which means that it is one of the very best operas ever composed, and it is still one of the most sought-after and popular works of classical music in the world.
Mozart received the order for the opera Don Giovanni during his stay in Prague in January 1787, when his previous opera was performed in Prague with great success The Marriage of Figaro. So Mozart arrived in Prague again on October 4, 1787 with a work in progress, which he rewrote, composed and finished right on the spot. The premiere was supposed to take place on October 14, 1787, with the composer in attendance, but it had to be postponed to October 29, and the ceremonial first performance was conducted by Mozart himself.
The plot of the opera takes place in an unspecified Spanish city. The protagonist Don Giovanni is a local philanderer who has already broken the hearts of many women, helped by his faithful servant Leporello. He is engaged to the noble Donna Elvíra, but he is also interested in the humble Donna Anna, whose chambers he breaks into, in addition to other beautiful ladies. Anne’s honor stands in the way of her father. A match ensues between him and Giovanni and Anna’s father is shot by Giovanni.
Apart from a few comic exits, the work has a rather gloomy character. One murder occurs right at the beginning of the first act, and the philanderer Don Giovanni himself finds death at the very end of the opera. One of the scenes even takes place right in the cemetery, when Don Giovanni mockingly invites the cemetery statue of the Komturo (Donna Anna’s murdered father) to a feast. To the surprise of the audience, the statue accepts the invitation to either make the young harlot repent or destroy him.
The Komtur statue guards the Estates Theatre
You can meet Komtur’s statue in Prague’s Železná Street near the Estates Theatre. The work was created by the sculptor and painter Anna Chromy and she called it Il Commendatore in Italian. The author portrayed him as a figure of a ghost – a grave creature without a face. For fans of the fantasy genre, it may remind you of the Nazgûl from The Lord of the Rings.
Since the premiere of Don Giovanni on October 29, 1787, the opera has been performed more than 120 times
In the Czech lands it was first played in German. The first performance in Czech took place on April 9, 1825 in the Nostic Theater under the musical direction of František Škroup. Of course, there were several Czech translations in the more than 200 years of the opera’s existence. On September 27, 1884, the opera Don Giovanni was performed for the first time on the stage of the National Theater in a translation by Václav J. Novotný. The opera was not performed in the Italian original at the National Theater until 1969.
Don Giovanni is one of the most performed operas in the world. For example, the 2015/2016 season was the ninth most performed opera on world stages.
Significant or interesting productions of Don Giovanni
- The Vienna premiere took place in 1788; the arrangements were made by Mozart, who also conducted it himself; the Prague success was not repeated
- The British premiere took place at Her Majesty’s Theater in London on 12 April 1817
- It recorded its first US performance at the Park Theater in New York on 5/23/1826
- Enrico Caruso sang Dona Giovannio for the first time in the 1902 London performance
- In the production of the Prague National Theater, Ema Destinnová alternated in the role of Doni Anna in the years 1919–1928
- In 1977, director Joseph Losey made the film Don Giovanni
- In 2014, the British television station BBC 2 filmed the documentary Mozart in Prague with Roland Villazón. Mozart’s music was recorded in it by the Czech ensemble Collegium 1704 under the direction of Václav Luks
- On October 22, 2016, a live broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera took place in Czech cinemas, in which Czech bass-baritone Adam Plachetka sang Leporella
Photo: Profimedia