Mozart S Opera Don Giovanni

The Original Portrayal of Mozart’s Don Giovanni offers an original reading of Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s opera Don Giovanni, using as a lens the portrayal of the title role by its creator, the baritone Luigi Bassi (1766–1825). Although Bassi was coached in the role by the composer himself, his portrayal has never been studied in depth before, and this book presents a large number of new sources (first- and second-hand accounts), which allows us to reconstruct his performance scene by scene. The book confronts Bassi’s portrayal with a study of the opera’s early German reception and performance history, demonstrating how Don Giovanni as we know it today was not only created by Mozart, Da Ponte and Luigi Bassi but also by the early German adapters, translators, critics and performers who turned the title character into the arrogant and violent villain we still encounter in most of today’s stage productions. Incorporating discussion of dramaturgical thinking of the late Enlightenment and the difficult moral problems that the opera raises, this is an important study for scholars and researchers from opera studies, theatre and performance studies, music history as well as conductors, directors and singers.

A comprehensive guide to Mozart's DON GIOVANNI, featuring insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis, a complete, newly translated Libretto with Italian/English side-by side, and over 30 music highlight examples.

'The Don Giovanni Movement' examines the aesthetic and moral legacy of Mozart's operatic masterpiece in the literature, philosophy, and culture of the nineteenth century. Deeply rooted in the enlightenment and romanticism, the opera functions as icon andmyth, and its tensions still resonate today.

Don Giovanni has been called the greatest opera ever composed, an almost perfect work. Along with "Aida," "La Boheme," and "Carmen," Mozart's masterpiece is one of the most often performed operas. The work is so admired that when the Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini was asked which of his own operas he liked best, Rossini unhesitatingly replied, ""Don Giovanni."" This Dover edition contains the standard Italian libretto of "Don Giovanni," side by side with a complete new English translation. Convenient and portable, it also includes an informative Introduction, a complete List of Characters, and an easy-to-follow Plot Summary. All repeats are given in full, so you can follow the text as it is sung, without losing your place. With this inexpensive, handy guide, opera lovers can appreciate every word of Mozart's brilliant comic drama in the original Italian or in modern English. An ideal companion for reading along with a recording, a broadcast, or at the performance itself, this superb volume is a first-rate aid to enjoyment of one of the world's most celebrated operas. "

“Don Giovanni” Captured considers the life of a single opera, engaging with the entire history of its recorded performance. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni has long inspired myths about eros and masculinity. Over time, its performance history has revealed a growing trend toward critique—an increasing effort on the part of performers and directors to highlight the violence and predatoriness of the libertine central character, alongside the suffering and resilience of his female victims. In “Don Giovanni” Captured, Richard Will sets out to analyze more than a century’s worth of recorded performances of the opera, tracing the ways it has changed from one performance to another and from one generation to the next. Will consults audio recordings, starting with wax cylinders and 78s, as well as video recordings, including DVDs, films, and streaming videos. As Will argues, recordings and other media shape our experience of opera as much as live performance does. Seen as a historical record, opera recordings are also a potent reminder of the refusal of works such as Don Giovanni to sit still. By choosing a work with such a rich and complex tradition of interpretation, Will helps us see Don Giovanni as a standard-bearer for evolving ideas about desire and power, both on and off the stage.

A study of Mozart's Don Giovanni, one of the best known and most often performed opears of the last 200 years.