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- Herausgeber: Icon Books
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Serie: Great Operas
- Sprache: Englisch
With a wealth of famous tunes and meticulous characterisation, Don Giovanni is an undisputed masterpiece created by Mozart out of a thread-bare fairground gig. The Don – for whom both sexes have a sneaking admiration – gatecrashes proceedings, serenading and seducing as he goes. As wily as he is insatiable, he outclasses all who are out to get him, including a jealous bumpkin and the down-at-heel Elvira. But a stone statue seals his doom and drags him down into hellfire. From the Champagne aria and the ballroom scene to the melodious arias of the three sopranos and the unctuous Ottavio, Don Giovanni is a thrilling drama that continues to delight audiences worldwide. Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, 'Short Guides to Great Operas' are concise, entertaining and easy to read books about opera. Each is an opera guide packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience. Other 'Short Guides to Great Operas' that you may enjoy include those on Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
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Published in the UK in 2012 by Icon Books Ltd,
Omnibus Business Centre, 29–41 North Road, London N7 9DP
email: [email protected]
www.iconbooks.co.uk
ISBN: 978-1-84831-463-4 (ePub format)
ISBN: 978-1-84831-470-2 (Adobe ebook format)
Text copyright © 2012 Michael Steen
The author has asserted his moral rights.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Typesetting by Marie Doherty
CONTENTS
Title page
Copyright
PREFACE
USING THIS EBOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MOZART’S DON GIOVANNI
THE OPERA AND ITS COMPOSER
WHO’S WHO AND WHAT’S WHAT
THE INTERVAL: TALKING POINTS
Why Don Giovanni is so great
The libretto
Giovanni’s success rate
Donna Elvira
ACT BY ACT
Overture and Act 1
Act 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sources of quotes
Other sources
NOTES
Short Guides to Great Operas
PREFACE
This guide is aimed at the ordinary opera-goer and opera-lover, usually a busy person who wants to know the essentials of the opera but has little time to grasp them.
It provides key background information to Don Giovanni, told engagingly by someone who knows the opera intimately.
It is light, easy to read, and entertaining. Relevant information has been carefully selected to enhance your appreciation of Mozart’s work.
It is authoritative, but not dense or academic. It is unburdened with the clutter that can easily be obtained elsewhere. It concentrates on information that it will help you to know in advance.
Read quickly before going to the opera or listening to it at home, you will get the very best out of the performance and have a truly enjoyable experience.
Opera can be a great social occasion. Being knowledgeable and well-informed, you’ll appreciate this magical art-form much more if you read this first.
I hope you enjoy the opera!
Michael Steen
USING THIS EBOOK
A very quick grasp of the opera can be gained by reading the opening section on ‘The opera and its composer’ and the ensuing ‘Who’s who and what’s what’. Further elaboration may be found in the sections entitled ‘The interval: talking points’ and ‘Act by act’.
The footnotes and boxes are an integral part of the information. The reader is encouraged to go to these by clicking on the links.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Steen OBE studied at the Royal College of Music, was organ scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, and has been chairman of both the RCM Society and the Friends of the V&A Museum. He is a trustee of the Gerald Coke Handel Foundation and Anvil Arts, and Treasurer of The Open University.
MOZART’SDONGIOVANNI
A SHORT GUIDE TO A GREAT OPERA
The opera and its composer
Who’s who and what’s what
The interval: talking points
Act by act
THE OPERA AND ITS COMPOSER
Don Giovanni, which Charles Gounod, the French composer, called ‘that unequalled and immortal masterpiece’, was first produced in Prague on 29 October 1787, to tremendous acclaim. This was around four years before Mozart died, aged only 35.
Mozart had already been freelancing in Vienna for six years after being unceremoniously expelled from the household of his former employer the Archbishop of Salzburg with a kick on his arse, as he himself described it. (He was a difficult employee to manage.) His celebrity concert performances were no longer as popular, and he was increasingly dependent on opera and foreign touring for his income. He was living expensively: the fees for Don Giovanni covered less than his rent for a year and a half. And he was already borrowing money from friends. He had other preoccupations at this time, as well: his father Leopold had died unexpectedly in the previous May and there was a lot of correspondence necessary to wind up the estate: the auction of the assets took place the following September. However, Mozart seems to have taken this ‘in his stride’, and some believe that his father’s death may have generated a creative urge.
The residents of Prague were enthusiastic about Mozart. As the conductor Bruno Walter has said, ‘the enthusiasm of the Prague audiences “shed a ray of sunshine”’ upon Mozart’s sorrowful life. Eighteen months before Don Giovanni, Prague had given The Marriage of Figaro such a welcome that, ‘for the first time since his childhood, Mozart knew what real success and acclaim meant.’ There, he was far better appreciated than in Vienna, where the reception accorded to Figaro had been lukewarm: audiences in Vienna regarded it as heavy and difficult, and it was quickly superseded by other operas such as Martín y Soler’s Una cosa rara, rarely heard today, but quoted in the supper scene in Don Giovanni.
As Figaro was such a success in Prague, in the early months of 1787 the theatre director there gave Mozart a commission for another opera. The director’s wife would subsequently sing the part of Zerlina, the peasant girl chased by Giovanni.
