# How Don Giovanni was performed in Paris, in the 1830s



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

"Nevertheless, for Berlioz, Mozart's main achievement as an opera composer is Don Giovanni. Like other contemporary writers, he calls Mozart 'l'auteur de Don Juan'. It is amazing, however, to observe his limited and one-sided view of this work, too. He wrote quite extensive reviews of Don Giovanni in 1834-35, when the opera was given for the first time at the Opéra (previously it was performed at the Théâtre Italien and at the Odéon), in a new French version by Deschamps and a musical adaptation by Castil-Blaze, which was an important event in Parisian musical life of the 1830s.

This performance is described in detail in Katharine Ellis's 1994 article. The music was transposed to suit Adolphe Nourrit (the great tenor singer of the day) in the role of Don Giovanni, originally a baritone part. Mozart's two-act opera was divided into five, and the plot changed considerably: Anna commits suicide at the end and Don Juan has a nightmare foretelling his own death. The 'scena ultima' was cut and the opera ended, after Don Giovanni's destruction, with Anna's funeral, to the sound of 'O voto tremendo' from Idomeneo and the 'Dies irae' from the Requiem. A ballet (with excerpts of other works by Mozart) was inserted into the ball scene, in accordance with the tradition of French grand opera.

The changes in the libretto were influenced by E.T.A. Hoffmann's story Don Juan (1813): the narrator of this tale attends an imaginary performance of Don Giovanni and falls in love with the singer representing Donna Anna, who dies right after the performance. The story includes a romanticized interpretation of Mozart's work, portraying Don Giovanni as an ideal character with sublime
aspirations, who is truly in love with Donna Anna. She loves him in return, but denies her love because Don Giovanni has killed her father; she is supposed to die before marrying Don Ottavio."
< Mozartian Undercurrents in Berlioz | Benjamin Pearl | P.26~27 >

They turned it into the worst comedy ever, ROFL!!!


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## Amadea (Apr 15, 2021)

I cringed and laughed at the same time reading this ahahah. Poor Mozart. I have truly no words. The Idomeneo and the Requiem ahahahahahahaah. They should have put Papageno's arias as well!! But this is what cracks me up the most:

"The story includes a romanticized interpretation of Mozart's work, portraying _*Don Giovanni as an ideal character with sublime aspirations*_, who is truly in love with Donna Anna. _*She loves him in return, but denies her love because Don Giovanni has killed her father;*_ (????) she is supposed to die before marrying Don Ottavio."

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Don Giovanni becomes an angel!! :lol: Tell me just how, HOW is this supposed to work???? 
"I love you, I love you so much.... but... you killed my father!!!!" 
Why did he kill the father if he's so sublime???? How did they explain that... oh my...
They truly made it a .... _Soap Opera_!! :lol:

I guess this has to do with the french taste for opera and how the french opera evolved and detached from the others and also 19th century's taste. This argument is actually quite interesting, but I'd have to dust off my musical dramaturgy notes as I don't remember much (in theory, I attended a class about this stuff in college. In practice, I only remember in french opera there is not a clear distinction between recitative and arias and it's very spectacular I think...?). But I don't have the time right now, it's night here and I'm going to bed, but in the next days I'll do that and post something about it.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

"Anna commits suicide at the end"

LMFAO


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Amadea said:


> In practice, I only remember in french opera there is not a clear distinction between recitative and arias and it's very spectacular I think...?).


Probably due to the influence of Gluck. Mozart's Idomeneo was also influenced by that ideal.


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## Amadea (Apr 15, 2021)

hammeredklavier said:


> Probably due to the influence of Gluck. Mozart's Idomeneo was also influenced by that ideal.


Mmm no I think it was the probably the other way around (french influenced Gluck). I remember Louis XIV specifically wanted to make a french version of italian opera, he wanted it to be its own thing, and a "more theatrical" and spectacular version as he loved that stuff, there were dances too. I might be wrong though, as I said I have to check my notes, I'll post them here.


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

The French tradition of adding ballets to every opera back in 19th century ruins a lot of great works. Maybe it is good for the box office?


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

It was probably extremely bad for the box office to have no ballet. It was deemed an absolute necessity, otherwise an opera supposedly was bound to flop. We have to thank this tradition for Berlioz' orchestration of Weber's Invitation to Dance that served as ballet for Freischütz (he also composed recitatives to replace the spoken dialogue) and the "Venusberg-Bacchanal" in Tannhäuser.

They massacred operas far worse in these times. Apparently the French turned "The magic flute" into a pastiche called "The secrets of Isis" or so and this was too much for Berlioz who wrote scathingly about it.


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