SYNOPSIS IN A MINUTE

Don Giovanni, seducer of 2,065 women, makes a fatal mistake when he kills the father of Donna Anna, his latest victim. He remains unrepentant as he is pursued in an attempt to bring him to justice, but when the statue of the dead man himself pays a visit, Don Giovanni gets his just reward.



FULL SYNOPSIS

ACT I

Don Giovanni, a Spanish nobleman, is renowned throughout Europe as a seducer of women. Leporello, his servant, reluctantly aids him by keeping watch. Giovanni attempts to leave the house of Donna Anna, his most recent conquest. When Anna’s father, the Commendatore, tries to stop him, Don Giovanni kills him. Anna tells her fiancé, Don Ottavio, that she was raped by an unknown man and they vow revenge on the murderer.

Leporello’s attempts to persuade his master to reform are interrupted by Donna Elvira, a former mistress of Giovanni’s, who is looking for him. Giovanni escapes, leaving Leporello to explain the extent of his master’s womanizing.

Masetto and his bride Zerlina are to be married at a peasant wedding, but Giovanni decides to seduce Zerlina. Elvira interrupts and foils Giovanni’s attempts. Unaware of Giovanni’s identity, Ottavio and Anna appeal to him for help in their pursuit of the murderer of Anna’s father. Elvira again interrupts and warns Ottavio and Anna that Giovanni is not to be trusted. As Giovanni leaves, Anna reveals that Giovanni killed her father.

Leporello and his master discuss the masquerade ball they will host that evening. Zerlina assures the jealous Masetto that Giovanni has not touched her. Elvira joins forces with Ottavio and Anna; they intend to take revenge on Giovanni at the ball. While everyone is dancing at the ball Giovanni attempts to ensnare Zerlina, but she rallies all behind her to try to entrap Giovanni. All accuse him, but he and Leporello elude them once more.

INTERVAL 

ACT II

Hoping for success with Elvira’s maid, Giovanni swaps clothes with Leporello, who is instructed to lure Elvira away. Giovanni is interrupted by Masetto, who is intent on killing him, but his disguise is successful and he beats Masetto up and escapes.

Returning with Elvira, Leporello is mistaken for Giovanni by Anna, Ottavio, Zerlina and Masetto. Revealing his disguise, Leporello convinces them that he is not guilty, and escapes. Ottavio swears vengeance on Giovanni whom, in spite of everything, Elvira continues to love.

Giovanni hears the voice of the Commendatore, whom he killed, warning Giovanni of impending retribution. Giovanni orders Leporello to invite the ghost to dinner. The ghost of the Commendatore accepts Don Giovanni’s invitation and arrives to send him to hell.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born in Salzburg, Austria on January 27, 1756;
died in Vienna, Austria on December 5, 1791

Mozart’s father, an eminent musician in his own right, began teaching his son the harpsichord when he was only four years old.  Even at such a young age, it was evident that Mozart had sure instincts and a phenomenal capacity to assimilate everything taught to him.  His gifts for sight-reading and improvisation aroused the interest of all who heard him.  Even more amazing at his young age were his creative powers.  He wrote minuets when he was five, a sonata when seven, a symphony when eight, and, at the suggestion of the Emperor of Austria, an opera, La finta semplice (The Simple Prince), when eleven.

At the age of six, he and his sister, Nannerl (four years his senior and a skilled harpsichordist), were taken by their father to the electoral court in Munich, where the young performers won the hearts of the royal family and were showered with gifts. The success of this venture encouraged their father to undertake others. For the next several years, he exhibited his children throughout Europe. In Paris, four of young Wolfgang’s violin sonatas were published. In London, his first symphonies were performed, and his artistry at the harpsichord amazed and pleased the Queen’s Music Master, Johann Christian Bach (the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach).

Mozart and his father embarked on an extended tour of Italy in 1770. In Rome, the fourteen-year-old boy gave a remarkable demonstration of his genius by writing down from memory the complete score of Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere after a single hearing. In Italy, as elsewhere, Mozart received numerous honours and tributes. He was commissioned to write an opera for Milan. The opera, Mitridate, was first performed on Boxing Day 1770 and was a resounding success.

The period between 1772 and 1777 was spent principally in Salzburg, under unhappy conditions. A new Archbishop, Hieronymous von Colloredo, had come to the Austrian city and failed to appreciate Mozart’s genius. The young man was treated as servants were, with imperious authority and personal abuse; the masterworks that Mozart created were ignored. A welcome avenue of escape finally came in 1777 when Mozart and his mother set off for Paris hoping to find some advantageous post; Leopold, denied a leave of absence by the Archbishop, had to remain behind. Unfortunately, his stay in Paris came to an abrupt end with the sudden death of Anna Maria Mozart.  Mozart had to return to his drab existence in the Salzburg post which paid poorly and in which he suffered many indignities.

In January 1781, he was acclaimed for his new opera, Idomeneo. This was the first work which hinted at his developing powers as a composer for the stage. Mozart now knew that he could make his way elsewhere. The permanent break with the Archbishop of Salzburg came in 1782 when Mozart visited Vienna with the Archbishop’s entourage. Denied permission to appear at some benefit concerts, Mozart flew into a rage, denounced his employer, and was summarily dismissed. From then on Mozart resided in Vienna.

The composer did not have to wait long for recognition. The Emperor commissioned him to write a new opera for the court theatre, The Abduction from the Seraglio. The opera was premiered on July 16, 1782 and was a triumph.

Confident of his future, Mozart married Constanze Weber on August 4, 1782. He expected a profitable post at court but, although the Emperor was lavish with praise and commissions, no position appeared. To earn a living, Mozart gave lessons, which brought in only meagre earnings. Frequently he was subjected to the humiliation of begging friends for loans but his frustrations and disappointments did not arrest the flow of his compositions. These included symphonies, concertos, and string quartets, as well as operas. A few in Vienna recognised the grandeur of this music. One was Joseph Haydn, then the most celebrated composer in Europe, who described Mozart as, “the greatest composer I know, either personally or by name.”

A meeting with Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838) (who had recently been appointed poet of the Viennese court theatres) in 1785 resulted in three of Mozart’s greatest operas. The first was The Marriage of Figaro (1786). The opera was a success; so many arias and ensembles were encored that the length of the first performance was almost doubled. On October 29, 1787, their second opera, Don Giovanni was premiered and again was a triumph. People went wild over Mozart’s melodies. The last of these three collaborations was Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (Thus do they all, or The School for Lovers) (1790). It was considered a failure and only received ten performances before being dropped from repertory.

The year 1791, the last of Mozart’s life, brought no end to the composer’s continuing personal misfortunes. While he had finally been given a permanent post as court composer and chamber musician, he received such a small salary that it neither relieved him of his debts nor provided for necessities. Impoverished, sick in body and spirit, Mozart gave way to despair. Yet, his last year was a period of brilliant creation, yielding two operas and the Requiem (The Mass for the Dead in the Roman Catholic rites). Mozart died on December 5, 1791. Few friends accompanied the coffin to the burial place in the common grave allotted to paupers. The exact position was never marked.

Lorenzo Da Ponte

Born in Ceneda, Republic of Venice on March 10, 1749;
died in New York on August 17, 1838

A fascinating figure, Lorenzo Da Ponte was born into a Jewish family in Italy that converted to Catholicism when he was a teenager. Educated by the Church and given a strong grounding in languages, literature and poetry, he became a priest but preferred a playboy’s lifestyle to the ascetic attitude of the cloth. Spending his twenties in Venice, he carried on numerous love affairs and intrigues, and eventually got himself so scandalously entangled with a married woman that he was banished from Venice on charges of mala vita or “bad living.”

He found his way to Vienna in 1781, where he got himself appointed as the principal poet of the Italian opera company at the Burgtheater. (Though he had no experience writing librettos, Da Ponte had developed his raw poetic skills in Venice as one of the city’s improvisatori, lyricists who amused rich patrons by improvising rhyming verse to a musical accompaniment – basically an early version of freestyle rapping). Two years later he met Mozart in one of Vienna’s salons, and in due course the two began an artistic collaboration that would mark a high point in their respective careers.

As was his wont, Da Ponte was banished from Vienna by the 1790s (the political situation changed and he fell out of favour with the new ruler). He moved to London where he worked some years as a librettist for the King’s Theatre, was fired, took up several unsuccessful business ventures, went into debt, and, to avoid the consequences, immigrated to America. He lived out most of his life in New York, continuing his wonderfully eclectic career by running a grocery store, becoming the first professor of Italian literature at the recently-founded Columbia University, running a boarding school and a bookstore, and spearheading the construction of the first purpose-built opera house in the United States.