About this book
Don Juan by Lorenzo Da Ponte thrusts listeners into the electrifying world of Don Giovanni, the legendary libertine at the heart of a timeless operatic drama. This English translation of Da Ponte’s libretto—best known through Mozart’s Don Giovanni—lays bare a tale of seduction, defiance, and moral reckoning told with sharp wit and theatrical flair.
Set against late-18th-century social hierarchies, the libretto explores themes of desire, honor, hypocrisy, and fate while balancing comedy and darker moral questions. First performed in Prague in 1787 as Mozart’s masterpiece, the work has resonated across centuries, inspiring writers and philosophers from E. T. A. Hoffmann and Pushkin to Kierkegaard and Camus. As a piece of dramatic works, Da Ponte’s text moves briskly between arias, ensembles, and recitative-like exchanges, offering vivid characters—from the audacious Don to the aggrieved and betrayed—without giving away the opera’s dramatic turns.
Narrated by Librivox volunteers, this audiobook presents the libretto as a performance piece, ideal for listeners who love classical opera, theater students, and anyone curious about the origins of one of Western music’s most provocative dramas. Listen to experience the language and structure that helped forge a masterpiece of operatic storytelling.
