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Prima opera nella storia della musica basata sul soggetto di Don Giovanni, L’empio punito di Alessandro Melani andò in scena il 17 febbraio 1669 nel Teatro Colonna di Roma. L’azione si svolge in una Grecia immaginaria e i personaggi hanno nomi che evocano la tradizione letteraria italiana. Il personaggio principale, Acrimante, si allontana molto dai protagonisti dei testi basati sullo stesso soggetto. L’empio punito manca inoltre di molti topoi drammaturgici della tradizione legata a Don Giovanni: i legami familiari, l’onore, la richiesta di pentimento. Il libretto contiene alcuni topoi molto comuni nella tradizione teatrale europea, assenti nei testi precedenti su questo soggetto: il sogno, il sonno, il finto veleno, il patto col diavolo. Il nucleo drammaturgico della vicenda (l’oltraggio al morto sotto forma d’invito a cena) ha rappresentato solo il punto di partenza. Il risultato è che il libertinaggio, il disprezzo della morte e delle regole dell’onore sono come prosciugati per dare più spazio alla ostentazione spettacolare, al potere dell’impatto figurativo e alla seduzione della musica., The first opera in the history of music based on the Don Giovanni’s subject, L’empio punito of Alessandro Melani was staged on February 17, 1669, in the Teatro Colonna in Rome. The setting is in an imaginary Greece and the characters have names that evoke the Italian literary tradition. The main character - Acrimante - departs very far from the analogous ones of the texts based on the same subject. L’empio punito also lacks many dramaturgical topoi of Don Giovanni’s tradition: family ties, honor, request for repentance. The libretto contains some topoi very common in the European theatrical tradition but missing in the previous texts on this subject: the dream, the sleeping, the false poison, the pact with the Devil. The dramaturgical core of the story (the disrespect to the dead in the form of a dinner invitation) represented the starting point, a reservoir from which to draw. The result is that libertinism, contempt for death, and the rules of honor are dried up, as it were, to give more space to spectacular ostentation, the power of figurative impact, and the charm of music.

Aquest article tracta de plantejar el tòpic «lletra i música» des d’un punt de vista crític-literari i no des de consideracions històriques i musicals. El propòsit és analitzar quin és i com es produeix el pas del llenguatge normal al del pentagrama, és a dir, el canvi de paraules als sons musicals i de llurs influències; en el sentit d’explorar, per exemple, el significat de les paraules de Beethoven, qui sostenia sobre la seva obertura Onomàstica, que estava «escrita amb sons». L’objectiu és, en darrer terme, entendre millor la importància crucial de l’òpera Don Giovanni en l’esdevenir mític de Don Juan, que en principi és un personatge literari., This article tries to pose the topic «lyrics and music» from a critical-literary point of view and not an historical-musical consideration. The purpose is analyze what is and how is produced the passage from a normal language to the stave, namely, since words to musical sounds and their mutual influences; in the sense of exploring, for example, the meaning of Beethoven’s words about his Name Day Overture, who affirmed they was «written in sounds». The ultimate aim is to understand better the crucial importance of the opera Don Giovanni in the mythical becoming of Don Juan, who is primarily a literary character., Este artículo trata de plantear el tópico «letra y música» desde un punto de vista crítico-literario y no desde consideraciones histórico-musicales. El propósito es analizar cuál es y cómo se produce el paso del lenguaje normal al del pentagrama, es decir, el cambio de las palabras a los sonidos musicales y sus mutuas influencias; en el sentido de explorar, por ejemplo, el significado de las palabras de Beethoven sobre su obertura Onomástica, quien afirmaba que estaba «escrita en sonidos». El objetivo es, en último término, entender mejor la importancia crucial de la ópera Don Giovanni en el devenir mítico de Don Juan, que es en principio un personaje literario.

Ce mémoire porte sur la réactualisation de l’opéra d’un point de vue féministe en s’appuyant sur l’exemple de la mise en scène de Don Giovanni (1787-1788) de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). Cette étude montre comment il est possible, en s’appuyant sur les outils de l’analyse musicale et littéraire, de créer une mise en scène qui respecte les principales caractéristiques du livret et de la partition – conservant ainsi ce que Jean-Jacques Nattiez appelle des « fidélités locales » – tout en permettant au public d’aujourd’hui de s’identifier à une œuvre composée il y a plus de deux siècles, et de s’y projeter. Pour ce faire, l’enjeu est de proposer une adaptation de l’opéra qui tient compte du contexte politique et social actuel, axé ici sur le féminisme. Prenant pour exemples les trois personnages féminins de Don Giovanni, le mémoire est construit sous la forme d’un triptyque, par ordre chronologique d’apparition des personnages : Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Zerlina. Ainsi, il sera possible d’établir un point de vue s’apparentant au female gaze dans cet opéra, jusqu’ici majoritairement interprété par le biais du male gazing (regard masculin). Le premier chapitre propose donc l’analyse de deux airs phares du personnage de Donna Anna. Cherchant à l’abstraire de l’entité quasi fusionnelle qu’elle constitue avec son fiancé Don Ottavio, l’analyse harmonique et littéraire s’intéresse aux passages où Donna Anna est susceptible d’affirmer son indépendance. L’analyse de ces mêmes scènes dans deux mises en scènes récentes de l’œuvre vise ensuite à vérifier si les caractéristiques qui ressortent de cette analyse sont mises en valeur dans les productions. Enfin, dans un processus s’apparentant à la recherche-création, je propose pour les passages étudiés des avenues de mise en scène qui tiennent compte des analyses effectuées dans les premières parties du chapitre. Les deux autres personnages féminins sont abordés suivant le même procédé, cherchant d’un côté à dé-ridiculiser celui de Donna Elvira – trop souvent considérée comme « hystérique » – et, de l’autre, à rendre au personnage de Zerlina son côté stratège, habituellement camouflé dans les productions « traditionnelles » où la jeune femme n’est représentée que par son côté paysan., This thesis explores the feminist actualization of opera, using Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) Don Giovanni (1787-1788) as a case study. This study shows how it is possible, by using musical and literary analytical tools, to create a performance that respects the main characteristics of the libretto and the score—thus preserving what Jean-Jacques Nattiez calls “local loyalties”—while allowing today’s audience to identify with a work composed over two centuries ago. To do so, I propose an adaptation of the opera that takes into account the current political and social context, focused here on feminism. Taking as examples the three female characters of Don Giovanni (Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina), the thesis is built as a triptych in which the characters are studied in the chronological order of their apparition. The approach is based on a female gaze point of view, contrasting with the male gazing interpretation which has been dominant in the operatic world until now. The first chapter analyses two major arias of Donna Anna. In order to free her from the almost fusional entity she forms with her fiancé Don Ottavio, the harmonic and literary analysis centers around passages where she is most likely to show independence. The analysis of these same scenes in two recent stagings of the work then aim to verify whether the characteristics that emerge from this analysis are highlighted in the productions. Finally, in a process of research-creation, I propose staging directions for the same passages that take into account the findings made throughout the chapter. The two other female characters are approached following the same process, seeking on the one hand to de-ridiculize the character of Donna Elvira—too often considered “hysterical” —and, on the other hand, to highlight Zerlina’s sense of strategy, which is usually downplayed in “traditional” productions in which the young woman is solely represented by her peasant character., Type de dépôt #1 (version complète)

Don Giovanni is one of the best-known works of Mozart’s production created a short distance from Mozart’s entry into Freemasonry. The vision of the East changes hand in hand with the growth of oriental knowledge, and Mozart does not remain a stranger, as evident from many aspects of Don Giovanni. The psychology of the characters is intertwined, for Kierkegaard, in the philosophy of narration that represents sensual genius; he justifies it, draws from it a demonic dimension of Don Giovanni while Goethe finds it in the creative thrust of the composer. This study wants to highlight how much Masonic morality is permeated in the work but also, and above all, an oriental dimension directed to the circular karmic vision of saṃsāra which is represented precisely by the desire of desire and which pushes the protagonist to never interrupt this flow of seduction. The non-interruption of this circularity will lead him to spiritual involution and to the world of the underworld., Il Don Giovanni è una delle opere più note della produzione mozartiana creata a poca distanza dall’ingresso di Mozart in massoneria. La visione dell’Oriente cambia di pari passo alla crescita della conoscenza orientale, a cui Mozart non rimane estraneo, come evidente da molti aspetti del Don Giovanni. La psicologia dei personaggi si intreccia, per Kierkegaard, nella filosofia della narrazione che rappresenta la genialità sensuale; la giustifica, ne trae una dimensione demoniaca di Don Giovanni mentre Goethe la ritrova nella spinta creatrice del compositore. Questo studio vuole mettere in luce quanto sia permeato della morale massonica nell’opera ma anche, e soprattutto, una dimensione orientale diretta alla visione karmica circolare del saṃsāra che è rappresentata proprio dal desiderio del desiderio e che spinge il protagonista a non interrompere mai questo fluire di seduzione. La non interruzione di questa circolarità lo condurrà all’involuzione spirituale ed al mondo degli inferi.

L’articolo discute le prospettive attuali della critica tematica e della mitocritica, analizzandone i rischi metodologici (il contenutismo e l’accumulo indiscriminato di materiali), e proponendo un modello di comparatistica transmediale, che potrebbe rivitalizzare l’approccio classico degli inter artes studies. L’analisi, che investe anche il concetto di modo come insieme di tratti formali e tematici, si conclude con un esempio concreto: un grande mito della modernità, Don Giovanni, strettamente connesso al tema della seduzione, ricco di implicazioni filosofiche e antropologiche.__The article focuses on the recent perspectives of thematic and myth criticism, by analyzing the methodological risks they have to face (the contentism and the indiscriminate accumulation of materials), and by proposing a model of transmedial comparativism which could revitalize the classic approach of inter artes studies. In the last part, the article, which also focuses on the idea of mode as a set of formal and thematic traits, discusses the example of Don Giovanni, a modern myth strictly connected with the theme of seduction and with a lot of philosophical and anthropological implications.

A partir de l’òpera de Mozart i Da Ponte, el mite de Don Giovanni es basteix per un tractament del personatge que el fa destacar diacrònica i sincrònicament respecte altres versions de dit mite i altres exemples de llibertins. Cal plantejar se si el seu poder simbòlic ens permet entendre, a partir del seu sentit genuí, algunes actituds en l’ús de les xarxes socials ofertes per l’actual tecnologia. Després d’escatir els trets singulars d’aquest mite recorrent a autors diversos, la seva interrelació amb la música i estudiar-ne la idoneïtat respecte altres casos, s’intenta traçar una genealogia del desig des de Kierkegaard fins a Marcuse, passant per la dialèctica hegeliana. L’evolució de la concepció i dels condicionaments del desig, de la seva funció estructural a la societat i la seva capacitat de transformació social, sempre aplicats i en diàleg amb Don Giovanni, ens permetrà avaluar què ha passat amb el desig i com se n’ha subvertit el sentit en l’actualitat. Si Don Giovanni i el concepte de desig que podria representar ja no són aplicables ara, cal reflexionar si tot i així podria tenir un paper prescriptiu per a ordir una alternativa a la nostra societat.

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 a discussion of the 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.

Don Giovanni o sia II convitato di pietra è un'opera in un atto di Giovanni Bertati, musicata da Giuseppe Gazzaniga, che precede di pochi mesi quella celeberrima di Da Ponte e Mozart. Essa è stata naturalmente studiata, soprattutto dai musicologi, come fonte principale del libretto di Da Ponte, ma più con applizazione al prestito di dettagli che non osservando le conseguenze strutturali derivanti dalla chiusura nel tempo ristretto e continuato di una vicenda che, al contrario, aveva per più di un secolo rappresentato la libertà della struttura e del tempo aperti che la drammaturgia spagnola opponeva al regime aristotelico della scena italiana e francese. Partendo da questo piccolo libretto, dunque, il contributo tenta una breve analisi riferita al trattamento spazio-temporale della notissima vicenda di Don Giovanni, dalla Spagna all'Italia alla Francia e dal teatro di parola all'opera. Don Giovanni or the Guest of Stone is an opera in one act by Giovanni Bertati, scored by Giuseppe Gazzaniga, which historically precedes the celebrated version by Da Ponte and Mozart by a few months. It has of course been studied, mainly by musicologists, as the principal source of the Da Ponte libretto, but more from the point of view of borrowed details than the structural consequences derived from its continual temporal restriction and closure of an event that had for a century, on the contrary, represented the freedom of open structure and time that Spanish dramaturgy opposed to the Aristotelian regime of the Italian and French theatre. Starting from this short libretto, the author attempts a brief analysis of the treatment of space-thunderstorm in the most famous scene of Don Giovanni, from Spain to Italy to France and from the theatre of words to the opera.

Teaching opera in prison presents challenges, such as limits imposed on printed and recorded material to study it, or the audio-visual technology in the classroom space, yet, no other experience can be so inspiring and rewarding for everybody involved. This essay focuses on teaching opera, in particular Mozart’s Don Giovanni, to imprisoned students in America. It addresses pedagogical challenges on how to teach opera in prison and advocates for the need to leave the ivory tower of academia and engage in social action. If opera is still perceived as an elitist art form, it is because it is artificially kept that way by being practiced, taught, studied, and promoted only among an exclusive sector of our population., Musica Docta, Vol 6 (2016)