The popularity of the opera with the general public spread rapidly,
and very soon there was no stage in Germany where "Don Juan" had not
acquired permanent possession. According to Sonnleithner's calculation,
"Don Giovanni" had been performed 531 times at Vienna at the end of the
year 1863; at Prague, Stiepanek asserts that 116 representations took
place during the first ten years, and 360 before 1855;[51] at the
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of "Don Giovanni" at Berlin,
in 1837, more than 200 performances were calculated to have taken
place;[52] similar celebrations took place at Prague[53] and
Magdeburg.[54] The opera was first introduced at Paris in 1805, in
a fearfully distorted and mangled version, by C. Kalkbrenner; a
characteristic instance was the masque terzet, where the words "Courage,
vigilance, adresse, défiance, que l'active prudence préside à nos
desseins" were sung by three gendarmes. Kalkbrenner also interpolated
some of his own music, and, spite of it all, the fabrication pleased
for a time.[55] In the year 1811 "Don Giovanni" was first given in its
original form by the singers of the Italian opera, and ever since the
most distinguished artists have retained Mozart's masterpiece upon
this stage in an uninterrupted succession of performances.[56] A French
translation of "Don Juan," by Castil-Blaze,[57] was given at Lyons in
1822, at the Odéon in Paris in 1827, and at the Académie de Musique in
1834, admirably cast and brilliantly appointed, besides being more true
to the original;[58] a still newer adaptation has been performed at the
Théätre Lyrique.[59] In London the great success of "Figaro" had paved
the way for "Don Giovanni," which has ever since its
{STATISTICS OF PERFORMANCES.}
(143)
first performance, in April, 1817, occupied a prominent place at the
Italian opera of that city. The applause which followed the first
Italian representation was so great that the lessee of Covent Garden
theatre produced an English version in May of the same year, which was
excellently performed, and with considerable success.[60]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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