A Note on Opera: Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’

“A Note on Opera” resumes with what’s often acclaimed as the greatest opera ever written, “Don Giovanni.” Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte transform a stock character from Spanish morality plays into a flawed, contemptible, yet tragic figure. There are so many different ways to interpret the Don that no truly definitive portrayal will ever be realized. Mozart and da Ponte described “Don Giovanni” not as a “dramma per musica,” as would have been the norm, but rather with the more cryptic “dramma giocoso,” or “playful drama.” “Don Giovanni” isn’t strictly serious, but neither is it to be taken too lightly.