- published: 15 Mar 2009
- views: 346157
Don Giovanni (K. 527; complete title: Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni, literally The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni) is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga (now called the Estates Theatre) on October 29, 1787. Da Ponte's libretto was billed like many of its time as dramma giocoso, a term that denotes a mixing of serious and comic action. Mozart entered the work into his catalogue as an "opera buffa". Although sometimes classified as comic, it blends comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements.
A staple of the standard operatic repertoire, Don Giovanni is seventh on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide. It has also proved a fruitful subject for writers and philosophers.
The score was completed on October 28 of the same year after Da Ponte was recalled to Vienna to work on another opera. Reports about the last-minute completion of the overture conflict; some say it was completed the day before the premiere, some on the very day. More likely it was completed the day before, in light of the fact that Mozart recorded the completion of the opera on 28 October. The score calls for double woodwinds, horns and trumpets, timpani, basso continuo for the recitatives, and the usual strings. The composer also specified occasional special musical effects. For the ballroom scene at the end of the first act, Mozart calls for no fewer than three onstage ensembles to play separate dance music in synchronization, each in their respective meter, accompanying the dancing of the principal characters. In Act II, Giovanni is seen to play the mandolin, accompanied by pizzicato strings. When the statue of the Commendatore speaks for the first time later in the act, Mozart adds three trombones to the accompaniment.
Salvatore Baccaloni (14 April 1900 – 31 December 1969) was an Italian operatic bass, often regarded as the greatest buffo artist of the 20th century.
Baccaloni was born in Rome. After attending the Sistine Chapel choir school as a child, he studied voice with the celebrated baritone Giuseppe Kaschmann (Josip Kašman, 1847-1925) and cast aside his initial ambitions to become an architect. He made his professional debut as Bartolo in The Barber of Seville, at Rome's Teatro Adriano, in 1922.
He sang for the first time at La Scala, Milan, in 1926, in Ildebrando Pizzetti's Debora e Jaele. Initially, he performed the standard bass parts there, such as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Sparafucile in Rigoletto. However, on the advice of La Scala's principal conductor, Arturo Toscanini, he decided to specialise in comic roles. He thus went on to make an indelible impression as Leporello in Don Giovanni, Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore, the title character in Don Pasquale, Varlaam in Boris Godunov, the title character in Falstaff and the title character in Gianni Schicchi. Baccaloni also sang supporting roles such as Benoit in La bohème and the sacristan in Tosca, infusing them with a lot of humorous stage business. He created several operatic roles, too, including that of the Lawyer in Umberto Giordano's Il re (at La Scala in 1929) and parts in Riccardo Zandonai's La Farsa amorosa (Rome, 1933) and Vigna by Guerrini (Rome, 1935).
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (German: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ amaˈdeus ˈmoːtsaʁt], English see fn.), baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.
Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.
Actors: Lorenzo da Ponte (writer), Göran Järvefelt (miscellaneous crew), Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (actor), Carl Friedrich Oberle (costume designer), Cameron Kirkpatrick (director), Opera Australia Chorus (actor), Taryn Fiebig (actress), Sam Russell (producer), Jacqueline Dark (actress), Daniel Sumegi (actor), Conal Coad (actor), Teddy Tahu Rhodes (actor), Andrew Jones (actor), Mark Wigglesworth (actor), Rachelle Durkin (actress),
Genres: Music,Actors: Lorenzo da Ponte (writer), Peter Brook (miscellaneous crew), Vincent Bataillon (director), Mireille Delunsch (actress), Daniel Harding (actor), Nathan Berg (actor), Lisa Larsson (actress), Marie-Hélène Estienne (miscellaneous crew), Gilles Cachemaille (actor), Peter Mattei (actor), Mark Padmore (actor), Gudjon Oskarsson (actor), Mahler Chamber Orchestra (actor), Alexandra Deshorties (actress), Tom Pye (costume designer),
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Music,Actors: Lorenzo da Ponte (writer), Brian Large (director), Roberto De Simone (miscellaneous crew), Riccardo Muti (actor), Anna Caterina Antonacci (actress), Angelika Kirchschlager (actress), Michael Schade (actor), Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (actor), Carlos Álvarez (actor), Franz-Josef Selig (actor), Adrianne Pieczonka (actress), Lorenzo Regazzo (actor),
Genres: Music,Actors: Bertrand Tavernier (miscellaneous crew), Odette Laure (actress), Philippe Sarde (composer), Christian Vadim (actor), Lio (actress), Abel Jafri (actor), Jacques Comets (editor), Véronique Delbourg (actress), Nicolas Rivenq (actor), Kathleen Fonmarty (writer), Kathleen Fonmarty (director), Sylvie Loeillet (actress), Sophie Dalezio (actress), Frédéric Berthelot (actor), Gabriel Dussurget (actor),
Genres: Comedy, Musical, Romance,Actors: Michel Tugot-Doris (actor), Barbara Rudnik (actress), Barbara Grupp (costume designer), Gisela Castronari (editor), Karina Fallenstein (actress), Renate Muhri (actress), Karl Heinz Maslo (actor), Monika Aubele (miscellaneous crew), Anno Koehler (actor), Carlos Pavlidis (actor), Erich Bar (actor), Dieter Rita Scholl (actor), Beate Klöckner (director), Beate Klöckner (writer), Beate Klöckner (producer),
Genres: ,Actors: Lorenzo da Ponte (writer), Peter Hall (miscellaneous crew), Dave Heather (director), The Glyndebourne Chorus (actor), John Rawnsley (actor), Benjamin Luxon (actor), Elizabeth Gale (actress), John Bury (costume designer), Pauline Grant (miscellaneous crew), Bernard Haitink (actor), Leo Goeke (actor), Stafford Dean (actor), Pierre Thau (actor), Rachel Yakar (actress), Horiana Branisteanu (actress),
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Music,Actors: Lorenzo da Ponte (writer), Walter Berry (actor), Sherrill Milnes (actor), Peter Schreier (actor), Edith Mathis (actress), Anna Tomowa-Sintow (actress), Karl Böhm (actor), John Macurdy (actor), Teresa Zylis-Gara (actress),
Genres: Music,Actors: Lorenzo da Ponte (writer), Georges Wakhévitch (costume designer), Walter Berry (actor), Carl Ebert (miscellaneous crew), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (actor), Erika Köth (actress), Josef Greindl (actor), Ivan Sardi (actor), Donald Grobe (actor), Pilar Lorengar (actress), Der Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin (actor), Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin (actor), Elisabeth Grümmer (actress), Ferenc Fricsay (actor), Georg Schünemann (writer),
Genres: Drama, Music,Actors: Lorenzo da Ponte (writer), Mario Petri (actor), Sesto Bruscantini (actor), Luigi Alva (actor), Giacomo Vaccari (director), Leyla Gencer (actress), Graziella Sciutti (actress), Teresa Stich-Randall (actress), Renato Cesari (actor), Heinz Borst (actor), Giacomo Legnani (miscellaneous crew),
Genres: Music,Actors: Hay Petrie (actor), Elsa Lanchester (actress), Binnie Barnes (actress), Robert Rietty (actor), Bill Shine (actor), Melville Cooper (actor), Annie Esmond (actress), Abraham Sofaer (actor), Clifford Heatherley (actor), Edmund Breon (actor), Douglas Fairbanks (actor), Claud Allister (actor), Gibson Gowland (actor), Flora Robson (actress), Merle Oberon (actress),
Plot: What do women want? Don Juan is aging. He's arrived secretly in Seville after a 20 year absence. His wife Dolores, whom he hasn't lived with in five years, still loves him. He refuses to see her; he fears the life of a husband. She has bought his debts and will remand him to jail for two years if he won't come to her. Meanwhile, an impostor is climbing the balconies of Seville claiming to be Don Juan. When a jealous husband kills him, the real Don Juan sees a way to avoid jail and get some peace. He hides as Captain Mariano in a small town. After six months, he's ready to return to society: can he measure up to the legend, will women find him attractive, and what about Doña Dolores?
Keywords: actor, actress, aging, assumed-dead, assumed-identity, balcony, based-on-play, character-name-in-title, cook, dancer