One of the most important events of 2021 awaits music lovers. It is undoubtedly the premiere of the opera "Don Giovanni" in a new staging by Michał Znaniecki. Whenever this masterpiece of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart appears in a new version on the opera poster, it attracts the attention of the entire musical world.
Has any of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera premieres been crowned with such great reviews as after the staging of the opera "Don Giovanni"? What makes it arouse the imagination of musicologists to this day, as an opera that was far ahead of its time?
He came to Prague, where the Salzburg Master was to give the world an opera telling the story of the greatest of seducers, he came on a wave of excellent reviews after "The Marriage of Figaro", but the way in which the people of Prague received "Don Giovanni" exceeded all expectations. Vienna, full of malcontents, often waiting for Mozart to stumble, this time had to do without reviews that flowed in abundance from Prague.
In the 91st edition in 1787, the Wiener Zeitung wrote about the great success of the work, staged by an Italian troupe operating in Prague under the direction of tenor and manager Domenico Guardasoni. Mozart himself, built with great success, wrote to his friend, Gottfried von Jacquin: On October 29, my opera hit the stage with an indescribable success. I hope to have it staged in Vienna, although they want me to write another opera for them here, but despite the tempting offer, I must refuse.
Undoubtedly, the final success of the work was also determined by its purely literary side. The author of the libretto, Lorenzo Da Ponte, referring directly to Molière's work, created a masterpiece confirming the right opinion of the most outstanding librettist of his time. It is significant that the opera, regarded today as an absolute masterpiece and included among the greatest achievements of the human mind, effectively divided the critics of the May premiere in Vienna (May 7, 1788). Some interpreted it as an opera buffa nomen omen in accordance with the intentions of Mozart himself, the thing is that both the theme of the drama itself and the way it presents the plot and characters inscribed it in the much more serious genre of dramma giocosa.And it was the way in which the opera was interpreted that determined the polemic. It was cut by Joseph Haydn himself, as Johann Schink writes in Dramutrgiche Monate 1790, recognizing all discussions as pointless in the face of the genius of the greatest composer of all time, which is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Nomen omen, the same influential Viennese critic (Schink) although he does not leave a dry thread on the libretto, praises Mozart's music to the skies.
Chronik v. Berlin went further in this assessment, already at that time describing "Don Giovanni" as the most outstanding operatic work ever heard by man, largely ahead of its time. To what extent, Johann Wolfgang Goethe's letter to Friedrich Schiller of December 1797 is best evidenced, in which the poet emphasizes the uniqueness of the work with its certain artistic hermeticity, which, due to its artistry, is reserved for a few.
Carl Spazier, one of the most influential critics of the Mozart era, (published in Musikalisches Wochenblatt ) went the farthest when he wrote that one aria from "Don Giovanni" is more than all the works of Giovanni Paisiello.
The artistry mentioned by Goethe, which differs from the desire to flatter cheap tastes, did not prevent the work from being a success, measured by the staging of the work. According to Mozart's biographer Otto Jahn, by 1863 in Vienna it was performed 531 times, in Prague - 476, and in Berlin for half a century, "Don Giovanni" was performed over 200 times.
In Poland, Mozart's masterpiece was performed as early as 1789 in Warsaw. 231 years after this premiere, the Warsaw Chamber Opera is honored to present the second artistic vision of this work, hosted on our stage. How we read the story of the all-time lover today, two and a half centuries after the Prague premiere, you will see on May 29, 2021.
