Although the part of _Don Giovanni_ was written for a baritone, tenors, such as Tacchinardi and Garcia, have often played it, and frequently with greater success than the majority of baritones have obtained. But no individual success of a favourite singer can compensate for the transpositions and changes that have to be effected in Mozart's masterpiece, when the character of the hero is assigned to a vocalist who cannot execute the music which of right belongs to it. It has been said that Mozart wrote the part of _Don Giovanni_ for a baritone, because it so happened that the baritone at the Prague theatre, Bassi, was the best singer of the company; but it is not to be imagined that the musical characterization of the personages in the most truly dramatic opera ever written, was the result of anything but the composer's well-considered design. "_Don Giovanni_ was not intended for Vienna, but for Prague," Mozart is reported to have said. "The truth, however, is," he added, "that I wrote it for myself, and a few friends." Accordingly, the great composer was not thinking of Bassi at the time. It would be easy, moreover, to show, that though the most feminine of male voices may suit the ordinary _jeune premier_, or _premier amoureux_, there is nothing tenor-like in the temperament of a _Don Giovanni_; deceiving all women, defying all men, breaking all laws, human and divine, and an unbeliever in everything--even in the power of equestrian statues to get off their horses, and sit down to supper. [Sidenote: DON GIOVANNI.]