This video came with another copyright strike, of course! But if you'd like to support this channel, you can start by checking out my program, Musicality - a training program for mastering your musicianship. Check it out here: www.insidethescore.com/musicality Thanks everyone - enjoy the video, and I'm hoping here'll be another one out before Christmas!

Truth to be told, Mozart composed operas throughout his life and most of them are remarkable pieces. What sets Le Nozze Di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così Fan Tutte aside is that just for these three operas, the genius of Mozart meets the underestimated genius of da Ponte. The sublime music and the marvelous simplicity of the verses feed each other allowing those three works to soar high above any other opera of the time. This is why I get angry every time I hear singers butchering the Italian of the librettos: in these three operas, words are just as important as music and one cannot exist without the others. This is also why I hate directors who take too many liberties: these three operas are so rich that they don't need any added gimmick to shine.

I fell in love with opera because of Mozart

I think it’s interesting too that Mozart and Da Ponte changed how the Don Juan tale is perceived. Before the opera, Don Juan was a largely comic figure and all his exploits were played for laughs. It’s great that Mozart gave the story a darker edge.

To some extent Mozart's operas are the equivalent of Beethoven's contributions to symphonies.

Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart may be the three single best composers the world has ever seen. But none had the apparent lightness and humour and cleverness that Mozart had. He was probably too smart for his own good, but being that clever also made him eternally modern and fresh. Figaro is as fresh today as it was two hundred years ago, and there will always be endless possibilities of modern interpretations.

What’s remarkable to me about Mozart’s operas is that you can hear the dichotomy in them between “writing pretty pleasing music for the nobility and the masses” and “writing music that propels emotional expression into the future.” For every “la ci darem la mano,” you get a “mi tradi quell’alma ingrata,” and in those moments, something opens up in his music. We either get a glimpse into the abyss or into the heavens.

Don Giovanni is one of my favourites. Probably Mozart's darkest opera, but there is still a lot of humor, too. I wonder how an 18th century audience reacted to the Commendatore Scene because musically, it's nothing like what was typical for the era or even for Mozart.

The comment below about Mozart and Shakespeare I think is right on the money. They both had the power to communicate that "nothing human is alien to them". Vividly remember seeing both Figaro and Don Giovanni when I was 12-13 years ago as the PBS station in Los Angeles would show classical music shows from time to time. Was utterly transfixed. Now it's 60 years later and I still find myself awestruck by their sublime greatness.

I think that Mozart’s instrument concertos are some of the best pieces of music ever written (clarinet, flute, piano concertos). And then, Mozart’s operas are music for the gods! So divine, so deep, so inspired that humans will try in vain (and forever) to replicate them… And I agree that Bach and Beethoven were in the same very small group of geniuses with Mozart.

Was waiting with literally my mouth open

Excellent video! Just one detail that must have slipped unnoticed at 8:50 - a "photo of the première"? in 1786?

With the exception of Henry Purcell's King Arthur, never have I tried to listen to an opera before. I hope to check out Mozart's operas.

Unfortunately, you didn’t talk about two singspiele of Mozart “The Abduction from the Seraglio” and “The Magic Flute”. They were more revolutionary than his Italian ones because they pushed the German opera to a new level, equal to the Italian one.

I've been into opera's since I've listened to classical music, some 20+ years now. Unfortunately for me, but also fortune to me, after I really fell in love with opera's I have betrayed my non-operatic classical collection (300+ CD's). But there's nothing I can do about it 🤷🏻‍♂️ The culprit, the One And Only Don! Have almost 20 recordings (CD, DVD and Blu-ray), and I sincerely believe it's the best opera ever composed. Cesare Siepi stands firm on the Throne, but with Ramey dangerously close (clip shown in the video is with Karajan from Salzburger Festspiele in 1987). This is the reason why my son bares the Serbian version of Giovanni, Jovan. As someone wrote, opera's to Mozart are what symphonies are to Beethoven. But, do give other opera's of Mozart a chance. P.S.: When you are ready to move onwards after Don Giovanni, try Semiramide, by Rossini. Thank me later.

Great video, but I missed Cosi fan tutte. I have no doubt Cosi deserves the same admiration as its two more famous sisters and is too frequently overlooked. Its music is just as wonderful. Think about moments as Soave sia il vento or Per pietà, ben mio perdona… every ensemble and aria form that opera is just perfect. Most are among the very best Mozart ever composed. The plot, on the other hand, is a brutal, (too) crude exploration of romantic young love and loss of innocence. It is probably the darkest of the three. I hope you find the time to talk about it.

Please sir make a video on Mozarts Piano Concertos! They are his only works that rival his operas in my eyes. The first movement of the 20th and the 2nd of the 23rd will live on for me as two of the greatest movements ever written in music. For me they are beyond just genius.

You can still watch Don Giovanni in the Ständeteater/Stavovské divadlo in Prague where it premiered in 1787.

8:50 A photograph of the premier of The Marriage of Figaro in 1786, but wasn't the first photograph only taken 41 years later by Nicéphore Niépce?

my favourite composer, and truly one of the great geniuse to ever live. You should do a video about his greatest contribution in my mind... the piano concerto... i mean common, the guy was on another level.

Mozart was my gateway to opera. Without him I would have been stuck in an orchestra pit playing operas that didn’t interest in any way. Thanks, especially to Marriage of Figaro and Don G I decided to give the opera form another try and have been greatly musically rewarded for doing so.

Your comments are very insightful, as ever, but the portrait you show as Louis XVI is actually Louis XV. All in all, luminous observations, thank you!

Heck of an intro. Less than 2 minutes in and I am totally invested. Excellent job hooking the viewer in

Again, another amazing script by Ricardo Santos! Incredibly moving. I have heard teachers say: 'if you want to begin to understand Mozart, you have to listen to his opera's.' Thanks for giving me the extra nudge to follow through with that advice.

Hans Zimmer re-orchestrated that final scene of Don Giovanni in Games of Shadow 😄It's truly one of Hans's masterpieces. I wonder what Mozart would have done if he had all the tech we had today 😊

2:50 That’s Louis XV

Excellent video!! Mozart’s Opera’s are truly timeless and beautiful works of art!

I really enjoyed the video...however in the pre-1786 period, you didn't mention Idomeneo or The Abduction from the Seraglio, of course neither were as influential or ultimately as important as the Da Ponte operas and beyond, but they both have same brilliant music in them that point the way to the more mature opera composer he would become, and I just thought I would make a case for them in passing

I’m so glad you made this video - been waiting for something on this subject for a long time. I myself have always wanted to compose a work for the stage, and your musicality course sounds like something fantastic for learning how to do it.

15:10 Please stop over editing and putting music tracks on top of each other. It becomes noise in the end.

Great piece of work thanks.

1:34 Mozart - Symphony No. 40, mvmt. 2

Wonderfully presented 🔥

Director Milos Forman's rendering of the finale of Don Giovanni in the film "Amadeus" is amazing.

Thank you for this excellent summary and assessment of the significance of these amazing works!

This video is perfect. Thank you!

I love this channel so much!!

Why do you have insects running around your image? I thought they were on my display at first but soon realized they were recorded with the video. Good content, thank you!

great work, thanks a lot

At a certain point I realized i'm not much of a classical fan, but fuck do I love Mozart. Die Zauberflote is chef's kiss too.

I've seen both of them this summer. I absolutely agree with your points.

Beautifully done presentation.

To this day Losey's D. Giovanni is the high watermark. The best version of what I feel is the best opera ever created.

Also, opera becomes much more attainable if you think of Figaro as a slapstick farce on the subject of sex. It is up there with the best comedies Hollywood has ever offered.

Great and interesting doc which works for the intro and interpretation of Mozarts importance to (classical) music. May I add the more neglected opera Midridate which I regards as his earlier but already mature showcase.

BriIIiant briIiant video and expIanations, but I have to put die entführung aus dem seraiI and die zuberfIote into the story to, as first and Iast step; seraiI being the first reaIIy concerted opera in which interesting, exotic and joyous meIodies are tied with many voices and in-story drama, martern aIIer arten is my favorite aria in aII of opera history, on the other hand zauberfIote bring out aII that obscure, mysterious, pagan, magic mystery, with its symboIism, its characters and stories, its exoteric nature, and possibIy one of the best overtures ever in music history

I believe that after this video, I will finally find the opportunity to get to know these operas closely. But for many years and nowadays my heart belongs to the "The Queen of Spades" by Tchaikovsky.

Great video.

What about Cosi Fan Tutte? It was the 3rd and last Mozart Da Ponte collaboration and is a glorious, intelligent and heart wrenching opera.

Der Schauspieldirektor has a great terzet in it that foreshadows Mozart's greatest comedic moments in Figaro and Don Giovanni, worth a listen.

MORE OPERA VIDEOS PLEASE!!!

Nice video! Could you also Make one on Jean Sibelius?

Don't underestimate The Magic Flute!

Why is the background music so needlessly chopped up? That's what they do in commercials and movies; I wouldn't expect it in a video about music literacy.

That was Brilliant

Of course you had to speak of "Figaro" and "Giovanni"; yet for my tastes "Magic Flute" is equal to, if not greater than, both. So much great music, from Papageno's opening song to the Revenge aria of the Queen of the Night, which is immediately offset by Sarastro's "Within These Sacred Halls": two verses rather than one long aria, major instead of minor, a simple melody instead of vocal fireworks--the two numbers work individually AND paired off against each other! The Flute is as great as any of Mozat's other operas!

Don Giovanni was written in 1787, the year of the American constitutional convention and the year the French monarchy finally lost control of its finances. The difference in one year from Figaro to Giovanni is that in the earlier the nobility can repent and be forgiven for their crimes, while in the later they are damned. I have seen Don in the small theatre in Prague where it was premiered but the most dramatic occasion was in Melbourne where before the opera began there was a great white screen covering the whole enormous stage and written on it was "1787". It might as well have been written in blood.

Considering my case I think that exposition to a style of music is of great importance for its adoption and comprehension. Let's face it, the pop music is less demanding to the ears than more elaborated music. You need repeated experience with classical music to get more susceptible to embrace it. But still, you can find a piece of music that can enchant you and makes you eager to learn more about a style of music. In China, the average age for classical audience is about 30 ! When asked how come this young generation is so thrilled with classical music, the answer is from a Chinese is : "From primary school onwards, children receive a great deal of education in music. We organize nearly 600 concerts a year for school children. The young audience of 15/30 year olds therefore naturally comes to attend our concerts."

I always thought the last scene was giovanni having a dinner by himself while leporello steals some food with an orchestra playing music just for him.

Already a massive Mozart fan, having grown up, playing his sonatas and one of his concertos. I studied "Figaro," at University and fell in love with the music, but didn't really "get it," until I watched a wonderful production of it by the Kent Opera, in the 1980's. I'm not (sacrilege, according to some) a fan of watching Opera in a language I don't understand, having spent many years struggling to read the synopses of a number of Italian Operas, in the dark and still ending up not really getting the plots, nor the fact that, a lot of the time, the singers (often totally miscast, you know, overweight 60 year olds, singing parts written for 20 year olds) often just stood about, singing with very little in the way of action. And no, for me, "surtitles," are no substitute. I struggle to watch foreign language films, for the same reason, although, for me, subtitles are a better option than awful dubbing! What was wonderful about the Kent, was, not only did they sing in English, so that the, drama, intricacies of the verbal exchanges between the chracters and the humour of the plot (especially, in the case of Figaro) were fully realized, but they "acted" as well as just sang. Their production of Figaro was great. One "twist" they added to the plot, was that The Count, often played as a lecherous, unattractive, old man, was played by an absolute hunk, far more attractive than they guy who played Figaro and who drew gasps from the audience when he entered and I'm sure that some people were left wondering (even though you know she wouldn't be) whether she might be tempted and who would blame her, if she were! 😉😉 Re the music, well, it's a total joy and so often, for me, with Mozart, it's not the moments of instrumental/vocal acrobatics that stir. The Countess's aria, at the beginning of Act II is a thing of pure beauty and every bit as moving as some of the more histrionic ballads you hear in Opera, and in Pop/Rock music, for that matter!

Love your content, though could you maybe make a video on Bruckner?

I have seen most of Mozart's operas done by the Seattle Opera. Once, they used an updated English translation from the Italian of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." Everybody of all ages enjoyed this opera immensely. Even though this opera has four acts, the music, singing, and storyline flowed so well. There were so many comic moments in the storyline that it made this opera so entertaining. It is also one of those operas that used a woman dressed as a man, called a "trouser role." Mozart may have intended to use a castrati singer for that role instead of a woman soprano voice. A castrati singer was a young man castrated before puberty to retain his child-like high voice. Another time, Seattle Opera performed Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutti," which was set in the modern era. For example, during the first act, the two women characters use cell phones to admire their boyfriend's picture instead of using small 18th-century images in a handheld frame. The two leading men characters are told by a friend that their girlfriends cannot be trusted, and they try to prove the antagonist wrong by dressing as different people. One singer was dressed in a long trenchcoat with no shirt, and he had six-pack abs with a sizeable hand-drawn tattoo done by a Sharpie marker on his midriff. In another act, one character faints on stage, and they bring out a doctor and a nurse while rolling in a crash cart with paddles to revive him. It was such an enjoyable experience, and I would love to see that production again. In the end, each woman fell in love with the opposite man. I also saw Mozart's darkest opera, "Don Giovanni." This opera retells the story of the gigolo Don Juan, who tries to sleep with multiple women. His servant carries a book of all the names of women he conquered, and he does not care about them or their feelings. During one of the acts, Don Giovanni has a swordfight with a commander who was the father of one of the women he used for his sexual pleasures. In the end, Don Giovanni kills the commander, but the man he killed will return to haunt him to repent for his many indiscretions with all those women. Finally, I saw Mozart's last opera, "The Magic Flute." It's a fantasy story about a man who has many adventures, such as meeting and killing a ten-foot serpent. Later, he meets a birdman named Papageno, who tells many fibs. As a result, three women show up and put a lock on his mouth as punishment for telling so many lies. The most famous aria is done by the Queen of the Night. She is asking her daughter to kill her father, Sarastro. However, if she does not do this task, she will be banished from the Queen's palace and no longer be her daughter. Mozart was a member of the Freemasons, and he used a secret ceremony for a part of the story during the second act. As I mentioned, this is Mozart's last opera because he died unexpectedly from a lousy illness at age 35. Some historians believe he may have died from food poisoning, such as improperly cooked pork at a local Vienna, Austria restaurant. By his death, Mozart had written over 600 pieces, such as piano sonatas, concertos, symphonies, and operas. One could imagine the number of other pieces of music he could have written for all to enjoy listening to. Besides completing that last opera, Mozart finished composing his famous Clarinet in A minor Concerto. His other notable piece of music was his "Requiem Mass in D minor." Yet, he only finished some fragments of music. One of his students finished it by copying Mozart's style of music. We will never know what Mozart intended for it after he died because he did not leave any notes about how he wanted it to be composed and performed. I highly recommend seeing any of Mozart's operas because each one has such good music and great stories.

This is a gorgeous, gorgeous video that urged me to want to listen to these operas. Btw, Can you please make one focusing on just Debussy?

Totally Agree with you😊😊😊😊

Why do people who are talented in music are also very powerful in their linguistic expressions? I usually read these comments for the beauty of the words and the way they are “ composed”.

You've said that I should try to watch this in my lifetime? No, I want to return from the depths of hell to really appreciate Don Giovanni. I mean, ya'gotta live it to love it, n'est-ce pas?

What is the piano song playing at the very end of the video? It sounds familiar but I can't remember the name.

Pretty brutal that Giovani's end hah

Zauberfloete doesn't get the credit it deserves these days, despite being Beethoven's favorite Mozart opera.

After Lacrimosa dropped, the art of music composing was never the same.

Nice content! Abbey Road reaction - or just a few words at least, when it comes to melody and harmony in "modern music".

Lorenzo di Ponte had met Giacomo Casanova, and there's probably a lot of him in Don Giovanni! Despite the hero's infernal fate, DON GIOVANNI is basically a comedy! (It was more popular in Prague than in Vienna--Czechs like a comedy with a tragic ending...)

16:00 whats the name of this music? I cant remember it's name damnn

Great video, but the clips you showed didn’t actually synch up to what you were talking about. When you recap the figaro act 2 finale the clips are from the act 3 finale.

I remember seeing Verdi's opera "La Forza del Destino" and being struck by both the similarities and the differences between its first scene and that of "Don Giovanni." In both, a young rake breaks into the bedroom of a woman he intends to seduce, is surprised by her father, and he dies. Only in "Forza" the death is an accident: the young man threw down his gun and it went off. In the world of Mozart and da Ponte, actions have consequences and individuals are responsible for what they do. In the world of Verdi and his librettist, Piave, it is all "the force of destiny."

Please please please make a: why listen to video about Prokofjev!!!

A minor point, but I really prefer to have "Giovanni" pronounced as Italians would, i.e., as "Jovanni." Btw, while considering these two operas as mankind's greatest acievements, I slightly prefer Figaro because its characters are more human, more relatable to, more worthy of sympathy.

6:07 Huh. I thought of it as a typically Italian sound.

8:53 i don't get him saying the image is a photo of the premiere, photography wasn't invented at that time. Great video otherwise

Pretty sure 1:23 is Tristan und Isolde

"The restored third act was bold, brilliant. The fourth was astounding. l saw a woman disguised in her maid's clothes, hear her husband speak the first tender words he'd offered her in years, simply because he thinks she is someone else. l heard the music of true forgiveness filling the theatre, conferring on all who sat there perfect absolution. God was singing through this little man, to all the world, unstoppable".

Le GOAT

The portrait was of king Louis the XV, not XVI

It is not „prima nocta“ but „ius primae noctis“, the right of the first night. The Latin word for night is not, „noctis“ is the Genitiv meaning „of the night“.

uh oh, the beginning got cut off

I think that more than anything it's that technology has rewired how our brains work. You talked about it: it's the short form content and the inability of our brains at this point to exert the effort it takes to consume longer works. Youngsters of today are unable to watch LOTR for God's sake! I think everything you mentioned is a part of it, but nothing is going to beat mental reprogramming. At the end of the day it is just something that each person will have to come to realize on their own and will have to make a choice between being a short form content addict, who has no say in what is consumed, or putting the effort into quitting screen dependency and opening infinite doors into worlds of imagination, pleasure, adventure, and sometimes even wisdom. Music is only the second step in this tragedy. The first step is to regain ownership of the human brain that has been hijacked. And yes, I deliberately write long sentences.

5:19 what is this piece?

There is an awkward and confusing cut between 12:45 and 12:50, a jump from the “Finale” of Act I (the costume party in Don Giovanni’s house, where he tries to rape Zerlina) and the Finale of Act II (The private dinner to which the Commendatore is invited). I suppose it is because of editing problems, but it can have a very puzzling effect in audience.

"Might" root for him ?! The guy stands up to a supernatural statue of a living-dead ! Don Juan is a humanist hero in my book

Opera Recapped

2065 is the actual number of women in Don G's list lol

Enjoyable description of Mozart's wk. Interesting to know Haydn "gave up" writing Operas....Now, I don't see any contemporary composer giving up writing specific genre just because someone else is simply brilliant as it is described here. Even mediocre musicians in any style will record/post anything as they are surrounded by virtuosos. Just an observation.

9:21 dude...

You haven't seen Don Giovanni have you. You got the story wrong jumping from the end of the 2nd act to the very end of the opera missing out the whole of the post interval content until the final scene where he is drawn down to hell. Unforgivable.

8:53 I'm guessing this is a joke, because this premiere happened in 1786 and photography was invented in 1822. Not to mention, the way people are dressed here seems more 19th century than 18th century to me. Honestly, the more I'm looking at it, the more it looks like AI art.

You have to listen to Ilayaraja India, you will be really feeling well... explain us how knowledge he has in music

I have always wondered if Mozart had intended to use music from the Commendatore scene for the overture from the beginning or was he like: "Meh, I'll use the Commendatore music for the overture." because he didn't feel like composing a whole new thing.

The voice of God

Why is it only two? You can't rank Die Zauberflöte lower than these two. The best opera ever written is one of these three, probably the one I have just listened to.

@ 2:47 is NOT a picture of Louis XVI but Louis XV. Credibility is eroded when "educational" documentaries are not accurate, although here, the damage is minimal. One has to wonder why with all this painstaking analysis a picture of Louis XVI could not be found.