Tre opere su Don Giovanni per Praga

The present volume of collected studies is devoted to the theme of three Don Giovanni–related operas that were created in Prague in the eighteenth century and received their world premieres there in three different theatres. The volume constitutes the fourth instalment of the series Italian Opera of the Eighteenth Century in the Czech Lands. In the opening essay, entitled “The Journey of Don Giovanni through the Centuries,” Tomislav Volek compares the most significant theatrical versions of the figure of the aristocratic seducer Don Juan, from the earliest treatment by Tirso de Molina to the version by Da Ponte and Mozart. Luciano Paesani (Chieti–Pescara) summarizes current findings on changes to the libretto of Vincenzo Righini’s opera Il convitato di pietra, composed for Prague in 1776 and subsequently performed in Vienna and Eszterháza. On the basis of newly discovered Don Giovanni scores of Prague provenance, Milada Jonášová describes a series of minor modifications made by Mozart during the rehearsal process prior to the Prague premiere—changes that were not subsequently entered into his autograph score. These alterations, however, survive in the Prague performance parts and became part of the manuscript copies of the score that circulated from Prague throughout Europe. Manfred Hermann Schmid (Augsburg) analyses distinctive features of duets in Mozart’s operas. Another contribution by Jonášová is devoted to a recently discovered letter from Bedřich Smetana to Johann Bernhard Gugler, dated 21 August 1868, concerning the remnants of surviving performance materials from the premiere of Don Giovanni in 1787. Jürgen Maehder (Salzburg) discusses the Don Giovanni–related opera Il dissoluto punito ossia Don Giovanni Tenorio by Ramón Carnicer (Barcelona, 1822), which remains relatively little known in Central Europe, and compares it with Mozart’s Don Giovanni, upon which Carnicer’s work effectively builds. The volume also includes a key chapter from the Prague doctoral dissertation (1973) by Rudolf Jedlička, dealing with the distinctive characteristics of ensembles in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Published here for the first time in German and edited by Tomislav Volek, this chapter is accompanied by an appendix presenting various archival materials relating to Rudolf Jedlička (1920–1989) as an outstanding interpreter of Mozart’s Don Giovanni—a role he performed many times on major European stages, including the Berlin and Vienna State Operas.