Mozart Don Giovanni Essay

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Mozart’s Don Giovanni is set forth as an illustration of “Mozart's prodigious ability to sustain dramatic continuity through the power of his music.” The opera Don Giovanni (1787) by Wolfgang Mozart in collaboration with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, tells a musically dramatic tale of a dastardly person who commits dastardly deeds until he unintentionally commits murder without remorse. The cad refuses repentance and gets his comeuppance giving the story moral fortitude, but not by the portrayal of realistic consequences. For entertainment purposes the story has a comedic element and action that keeps the attention of the viewer, while at the same time Mozart’s music sets the tone and evokes feelings beyond just the words. As stated by Greenberg (2009): “Don Giovanni is not technically an opera…show more content…
Regarding Mozart’s opera compositions as an adult; Greenberg (2009) remarks: “in an opera, it is the composer who is the dramatist and Mozart was, for my money, the greatest musical dramatist in history” (L29, 8:09). Greenberg (2009) discusses Mozart’s exceptional talent for dramatizing the staged performance of opera with music, specifically Don Giovanni’s opening; “this brilliant upbeat music seemed the perfect way to begin an ostensibly comic opera, but we also observed that this comic upbeat sonata form is preceded by a dark and malevolent introduction that's about as comic as a root canal” (L29, 9:44). Greenberg (2009) demonstrates this by playing an excerpt of the overture which has very base notes and a very ominous sound. Greenberg (2009) states: “This fearsome introduction leaves a nagging sense of impending disaster in the pits of our bellies despite the comic and upbeat music that follows. Indeed, this tragic music presages tragic events that will occur at the very end of the opera” (L29,
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