When was don giovanni written

First performance: October 29, , Teatro di Praga, Prague. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, conductor. When Mozart moved to Vienna in to live out what would be the last ten years of his life, he had every reason to believe that fame and fortune would come his way.

Vienna was, after all, the musical capital of Europe. One could expect to find there the most discriminating and intelligent of audiences. Unfortunately for Mozart, they were also fickle audiences, sensitive for the most part to only the politically-influenced preferences of the court. Dramatic state music, the genre in which Mozart had the greatest potential to excel, was the most difficult to conquer without the aid of those in charge of the official court theater.

Never in the history of dramatic stage music has there been a more perfect collaboration between poet and composer. The premiere on January 13, , was such a success that the impresario Bondini immediately commissioned an opera to be performed the following autumn. Department of Education. Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by A. Kenan, Jr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; Dr. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts.

The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government. You have 0 items in your cart. As a non-profit organization, the Kennedy Center is reliant upon our generous donors to fulfill our mission.

Your tax-deductible gift will help keep our vital arts and education initiatives accessible to more communities across the nation! To join or renew as a Member, please visit our Membership page. To make a donation in memory of someone, please visit our Memorial Donation page. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Boy genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — was born in Salzburg, Austria to a family of musicians his father was a well-known composer and his sister was an accomplished instrumentalist.

So, What's Going On? Think About Which characters seem serious to you? This statue starts speaking to Don Giovanni, inviting him to the grave. Don Giovanni agrees against the advice of his servant Leporello. The statue demands that Don Giovanni repents.

He refuses and is dragged into hell. Leporello is looking for a new master. But the Commendatore is killed by his daughter's aggressor. The duel takes place on a trio of men's voices, a rare thing in opera. And even rarer, Don Giovanni has a bass voice: he is not a tenor, as one would expect from the male protagonist - especially from a seducer. Vocally, nothing distinguishes him from the other basses: neither from Leporello, his servant even if Don Giovanni constantly reminds him the status differences between them nor from the Commendatore, who represents moral authority whereas Don Giovanni is a real adulterer.

Don Giovanni, far from showing remorse for his crime, invites the Commendatore to come back from the dead and supper in his company twice. While Don Giovanni is at home celebrating and behaving even worse with his servant, the statue of the Commendatore appears as promised, coming from a graveyard.

All of a sudden, the opera becomes a tragic and supernatural drama. The one who was first a father is now a terrifying spectre waiting for revenge, with his bass voice coming from the bottom of the dead world and accompanied by a religious orchestra to carry Don Giovanni down to Hell. Biographers and critics did not hesitate to point out that Don Giovanni was premiered five months after Mozart 's father's death: Leopold Mozart died on May His father had been his first teacher he was a composer, too , his friend and also his manager.

However, the departure of his son from Salzburg, his hometown - in - and his marriage to Constanze Weber signed the break between father and son. According to Milos Forman , director of Amadeus , there is no doubt: the Commendatore and Don Giovanni represent Leopold and his son - a son dreaming of freedom but who is still under the influence of his powerful father even after his death.

The characters in Don Giovanni are not limited to a single archetype. Another very realistic and multifaceted character is Donna Elvira.