The performance will be broadcasted on our website and YouTube channel.


In the current situation, presenting a fully staged version of the opera would have entailed too great a risk, and so we have postponed doing so until a later date when the work can be performed safely. However, we still wanted to avoid having this day pass without any Don Giovanni at all, and so we are inviting our dear viewers on an adventure.
Don Giovanni is not only one of Mozart's operas, it is also, like his other operas, a repository of the composer's musical thinking. The basic elements of this storehouse can be seen in the musical and emotional shaping of the characters in the opera and are present, both before and after Don Giovanni, in his piano concertos, symphonies and chamber works. The aim of the performance is to lead the audience into the world of Mozart's thinking in conjunction with Don Giovanni in the format of a pasticcio. The pasticcio was a popular genre of music in the 18th century in which composers compiled a new work from various others. There are several known operas in which the arias originated with as many as five or six different composers (the word, related to the French-derived English word 'pastiche', can be translated as a 'mash' or 'mess' and refers literally to a kind of Italian layered pasta dish).
The concert will start in style with the overture from Don Giovanni. The seven works to follow, for their part, are related to the quintessential musical characters appear in the opera. The concert aria Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo - originally intended for Così fan tutte - could also be a missing aria from Don Giovanni. Two other musical excerpts are also related to the figure of the lecherous nobleman: depicting the protagonist's personality radiating power and self-confidence and his mesmerising charm over women, respectively, are the first movement of the Jupiter Symphony and, dating from almost exactly the same time, the concert aria Un bacio di mano - which also offer a thematic kinship to discover. Akin to the opera's overall diabolical atmosphere are the bass aria Così dunque tradisci and the first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor. Mozart's string quintet in C major can be clearly linked to the character of Leporello, while the musical world of Donna Anna is presented in the soprano aria Tra l'oscure ombre funeste written as part of Davide Penitente. Concluding the concert will be the finale to the first act of Don Giovanni, one of the most complex closing scenes in Mozart's entire oeuvre: a typical 'imbroglio' situation combining moments of complete turmoil with a dramatic clash of emotions, to put it simply. The open-endedness arising from the logic of this scene is, in part, an invitation to attend the performance of the opera in its complete entirety, which - we hope - to stage in the not-too-distant future.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest, Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok