Many poets, playwrights and composers have tackled the popular story of Don Juan, the rake who seduced his way across Europe only to end up dragged into hell unrepentant by the statue of the murdered father of one of his victims. Mozart composed Don Giovanni in 1787 on a commission from Prague, subtitling it “A Comic Drama.” In reality, Da Ponte and Mozart made the opera as amusing as possible within a serious dramatic setting, transforming the mood of the source play, El burlador de Sevilla  (The Trickster of Seville) by seventeenth century playwright Tirso de Molina. Maintaining this balance has always been the challenge to conductors and stage directors.

Most opera composers of the period composed special music for opera overtures, unrelated to the music of the opera itself. Mozart, however, incorporates the frankly scary music with its creeping chromatic scales that accompanies the denouement as the Commendatore drags Don Giovanni down to Hell. The following allegro does not recur in the opera but conjures the hectic atmosphere of the Don’s manic womanizing.

Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
Wordpros@mindspring.com
www.wordprosmusic.com