#don giovanni

[ssmashingtime]

Smash or pass

[alricardus]

Donna Anna and Hamlet, right.

Protagonists

Dead fathers who come back from the dead in some way

Said father is killed by a main character considered evil

Friend that the fandom ships them with (bonus points because it's a gay ship)

Also in a straight relationship though

Death

Trauma

Depression

Deserve hugs and good people

They should be friends

[amadea-nachtmusik]

Legend says Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the overture to Don Giovanni the night before its Prague premiere on October 29, 1787.

As he wrote frantically, his wife Constanze kept him awake with punch and stories. The wet manuscript was rushed to copyists at 7:00 AM, barely ready for the afternoon's performance.

The Legend vs. Reality: The All-Nighter:

According to Constanze and early biographers, Mozart delayed writing the overture until the eve of opening night.

Mental Composition: Mozart famously claimed the music was already fully formed in his head ("it's all up here"), meaning the physical act of writing was mere transcription.

The Timeline: Historians note Mozart officially logged the completion of the opera in his catalog on October 28, 1787, suggesting the all-nighter possibly may have actually happened before a dress rehearsal or final touch-up rather than literally hours before the curtain rose.

However, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart kept a handwritten personal catalog (Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke) starting in February 1784. Musicologists note that Mozart distinguished between a work being composed (fully structured in his mind or basic draft) and written out (transcribed into a clean, full score). He would log a piece as complete in his catalog once the creative composition was done, even if the final transcription or copying of internal voices/overtures happened frantically later.

Mozart's Creative Process

Composition vs. Copying: Mozart famously stated that his music was fully complete in his head before he put pen to paper.

The Draft State: He often entered a piece into his personal Autograph Catalogue when he considered the core draft done, leaving details like inner orchestration or the overture to be finished just before a premiere.

Famous Crunches: For instance, he famously finished the overture to Don Giovanni the night before its premiere in Prague while his wife told him stories to keep him awake.

Musical Significance

Dramatic Foreshadowing:

Unlike standard standalone overtures of the era, the opening D-minor chords directly portend the terrifying arrival of the Commendatore's ghost in the opera's climax.

** Seamless Transition:**

The menacing Andante intro shifts into a lively Allegro, establishing the duality of tragedy and dark comedy that defines the entire masterpiece.

[alricardus]

don jiavani

[gastronominho]

No dia 5 de agosto, o @imakaysaopaulo realiza uma edição especial da Cerimônia Kaitai, com abertura de atum nacional, menu em seis etapas e vinhos brasileiros escolhidos por @stevaolimana. Participam @vinicoladongiovanni_, @lidiocarraros, @intentovinhos e @garboenologiacriativa. Valor: R$ 695. Leia a matéria completa no Gastronominho. Link na bio.

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[immazachydude]

📢 UPCOMING PROJECT TEASER: DON GIOVANNI IN THE SIMS 4 📢

(Note: This image is an unofficial release containing AI-generated elements and visual inaccuracies. It will be replaced once official media is finalized!)

If you love dark opera, historical drama, or gothic fairytale aesthetics, keep reading! I’m currently rebuilding Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s legendary masterpiece, Don Giovanni, into a cinematic story series.

What is it about?

The Setup: The reckless nobleman Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore in a duel while fleeing a palace, sparking a desperate quest for vengeance.

The Comedy: Giovanni is joined by Leporello, his sarcastic servant who hates his master's lifestyle but gets dragged into all the chaos anyway.

The Supernatural Twist: While hiding in a cemetery, Giovanni mockingly invites a stone statue of the man he killed to dinner. The statue actually shows up to the feast, demanding a final handshake of repentance!

⚠️ Crucial Project History & Truth Alert:

I need to set the record straight about why this project is now a solo endeavor. This piece was originally a commission for someone else, but she was exposed on Reddit for using a fake name and acting incredibly suspicious. It turned out she was the exact same individual behind the Magic Flute drama. Because this commissioner was incredibly cruel and actively participating in toxic flame wars with a controversial user from the Papa Louie Pals scene, I permanently canceled her commission, broke off the partnership, and erased her from my creative life.

Because of this, our group is permanently split up and I am running this entire production completely by myself. I am completely leaving Papa Louie Pals behind and actively avoiding those messy, toxic communities like GoAnimate, Vyond, Plotagon, and Gacha. I have completely moved over to The Sims 4 to leave her internet shame behind, protect my name, and create art in peace.Coming very soon! 🌟🎬

Her online shame ruined everything. Even worse, the controversial user she was fighting with started targeting me with alt accounts, spreading outright lies that I am related to her. This is 100% false. That same toxic user has even been jumping into other spaces—like GoAnimate, Vyond, and Gacha—specifically to impersonate her and create fake call-out threads. I explicitly told her not to bring that toxic community drama near me, but she did it anyway. I wanted to report this malicious harassment and defamation to the authorities, but I don't have enough solid evidence right now to take legal action.

[noughticalcrossings]

I'm interested about your opinion on Leporello (after scrolling through your posts on him hehe):

Favorite Leporello (production/actor)

Is he a pathetic little wet cat

Does he deserve a hug

Any other stuff that you may want to yap about

...yup, that's apparently my ask. Have a great day/afternoon/evening/night!

I’m glad you’re enjoying the Leporello-blogging, I should do more of it, and I sincerely apologise for the beast you have unleashed

Favourite production is without a doubt the 2017 Aix-en-Provence performance. Nahuel di Pierro is the most fantastic Leporello and every character choice is played so well, and for a minimalist production it packs so much humour into lighting and musical cues.

This production is top tier for having fully realised female characters with their own agency and arcs, and having the Don be an absolute powerhouse of charm and pity and slime. When he’s having fun you want to have fun with him, when he’s acting up he’s a manic monster that even Leporello struggles to contain. And I think the delight of this Leporello is that he does try to contain the Don for the most part - he is jokingly charming with Elvira’s maid, tries to protect her and Elvira in the finale from the Don, and looks genuinely crushed to lose the Don after hanging on for all he’s worth.

It’s a very sensitive portrayal, while not downplaying that Leporello does benefit from the parties and the carousing and the Don’s favour, and that his protection of the Don leads to further misery for Donna Anna and the other women even if he himself is kinder than that.

As even the most cursory glance through my blog will have revealed: I have a favourite singer. Roberto Tagliavini in the 2019 Royal Ballet and Opera production was a Leporello I spent a long time tracking down and it was utterly worth it, even if the production itself makes some decisions I don’t agree with. I’m going to see him reprise the role in a couple of months and am unbelievably hyped.

He has a pleasing amount of snark to him, always pulling faces or dragging his feet when he’s asked to do something, or ineffectually trying to chase the girls, balanced with a genuine fright of Don Giovanni that I think plays very well. Most criticisms that he gives are instantly softened with ingratiating laughter and he’s very quick to flinch even when the Don is on the other side of the stage. Also I am endlessly pleased by watching a very tall man get flung around the stage like a ragdoll and spend the entire time nursing a headache.

On the other hand, he does seem genuinely concerned for Don Giovanni’s welfare, sometimes played for laughs when he has to check if he’s killed the Don by suggesting he give up women, but also rushing to support him when the Commendatore appears with all the symptoms of a heart attack.

The difference between this and other productions, and a spoiler if you’re inclined to watch it, is that when Leporello fails to dissuade the Don from accepting the Commendatore’s invitation he quits, unable to justify sticking with him. He later appears as a guilty, ghostly hallucination, still trying to help his master but ultimately leaving him alone in the final confrontation. I do enjoy the aesthetic of it very much, Elvira occupies a similar role and it highlights the similarities between the two, but part of me wants it to be taken a little further. One of the reasons Leporello abandons the Don is because the Don has a knife in hand the entire time and is not afraid to threaten with it, and I believe an unthinking stab might be the cherry on top of the cake to highlight just how unstable the Don has become. Also because I love covering my favourite characters in blood.

There are plenty of productions I’ve skimmed through; it was the very first opera I fell in love with and there are several I want to revisit now I know the libretto well enough to survive without subtitles. Some shoutouts to the 2001 Zurich production with László Polgár playing an older, much more downtrodden Leporello who is much more sympathetic with Elvira, and the 1991 Opera Australia production with Stephen Bennet who initially has the bearing of a mildly-malevolent beanstalk but over the course of the opera is reduced to a trembling wreck (and also has the most statuesque Commendatore I’ve ever seen).

To wrap up a very long post, I’m pretty fascinated by most interpretations of the character as long as they don’t go for the “directly subordinate villain” approach. I think that’s boring and does a disservice to a far more complex character who is chock full of class dynamics and unfulfilled wishes. I love productions that make the relationship between Leporello and the Don more explicitly homoerotic and abusive - especially as it draws parallels with the female characters - and dislike ones that have him as a pure striver who would do exactly the same as the Don if given enough power. Robert Gleadow does a fantastic, wild-eyed Leporello but unfortunately both the productions I’ve seen him in feature him actually sleeping with Elvira during the deception, which is probably one of my hard nos for character sympathy, even if one of those prods has a “the Don was dead to begin with” vibe and the other has Elvira not really minding. I need to revisit Furlanetto and Terfel and Regazzo but they all had some great stuff going for them.

And to wrap up the wrap-up. Yes he is a pathetic little wet cat and yes he deserves a hug, but I really think he’d rather be left alone to enjoy some well-earned R&R. Give him an unlimited credit card, a beach holiday, and enough ibuprofen to kill a rhino.

[ssmashingtime]

I promise I will come back and start posting regularly next week 🙏 Have Giovanello slop