Page 21 - The Plymouth Philharmonic Legends and Legacies 11-2-2024 digital program flipbook

(1960) in an adaptation by Gil Evans. Gaspar Sanz’s guitar music also inspired modern
orchestral works by Manuel de Falla (El retablo de maese Pedro, 1923) and Peter
Warlock (Capriol Suite, 1926). All three of his exciting guitar concertos are analyzed in
José Antonio Donis’ fascinating MMus thesis “The Musicologist behind the Composer”
(Florida State U, 2005).
— Laura Stanfield Prichard
✶ ✶ ✶ ✶ ✶ ✶ ✶

Overture to Don Giovanni Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756 — 1791)
JOANNES CHRISOSTOMUS WOLFGANG GOTTLIEB MOZART, who began to call
himself Wolfgango Amadeo about 1770 and Wolfgang Amadè in 1777 (but Amadeus only
in jest and never in the combination “Wolfgangus Amadeus”), was born on January 27,
1756, and died in Vienna on December 5, 1791. His seven-minute Overture to the opera Il
dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni [The Rake punished, or Don Juan] was composed in
1787. Because the overture during opera performances leads directly into the opera without
a break, this performance includes the special 13-measure ending by Mozart himself,
composed for concert performances of the overture alone.

Mozart called his opera Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni an opera buffa (comic
opera), although it was billed as a “drama giocoso” to indicate that it contained both
serious drama and comedy. As with many operas of the time, it was intended to
celebrate an important dynastic event (the visit of the emperor’s niece Archduchess
Maria Theresa to Prague in October 1787); since this special event emphasized an
honorable aristocratic woman, Mozart made sure his treatment did the same. Delays in
the composition of Don Giovanni meant that it was replaced by a repeat of Figaro.

Premiering less than one month later to great acclaim in Prague, DG’s story is animated
by the dramatic tension: where comedy and tragedy are opposed, where they overlap,
and where it is impossible to distinguish between them. As was typical of the time,
Don Giovanni opens with an instrumental overture, composed only after Mozart had
carefully woven the main themes throughout his completed opera.

The title character is Don Juan, a licentious Spanish nobleman with a reputation for
abusing women: Mozart’s arias and duets masterfully depict his attempts to seduce
the characters Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina. The dramatic shape of the
libretto emphasizes DG’s downfall, so it is ironic that it was the combined work of
Mozart (a happily married man who was devoted to his wife and three-year-old son)
and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, a longtime friend of Casanova who had been
banned from Venice for licentious behavior. Da Ponte outlived Mozart by forty-seven
years. He produced the first full performance of Don Giovanni in the US (NYC, 1825),
founded the first purpose-built opera theater in the US (Italian Opera House at
Leonard and Church, 1833-39), and died in New York City after serving as Columbia’s
first (unpaid) professor of Italian.

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Season 2024/25