Life of Mozart

—150 DON GIOVANNI.brought Tirso's " Don Juan " to Italy. According to Riccoboni,it first appeared upon an Italian stage soon after 1620.^The first printed translation known is that by OnofrioGiliberti, entitled " II Convitato di Pietra," performed in1652 at Naples ; others followed with the same title byGiacinto Andrea Cicognini (1670) and Andrea Perucci(1678);^^ the subject was familiar on the Italian stage, andunfailingl}^ popular.^"The Italian dramatic company, who were naturalised inParis at the theatre of the Hotel de Bourgogne, were accustomedto appoint one of their number to arrange the planof the pieces which they performed, but the actual performancewas improvised. In this fashion they played animprovised version of Giliberti's " Convitato di Pietra,"which had an extraordinary run.^^ The chief situations ofthe Spanish drama, much simplified and coarsened, arecompressed into five acts, and Arlecchino, who appearshere as Don Juan's servant, is brought into the foregroundand made the mouthpiece of a great deal of very questionablebadinage :The first act represents Isabella's seduction in Naples. Don Pedro,her father and Don Juan's uncle, agrees with her to denounce Ottavio,her lover, as her seducer, which causes the latter to take flight.^^ Inthe second act Don Juan and Arlecchino swim to shore [a very favouritescene, richly garnished with jokes], and Don Juan's love passages withthe lovely fisher-maiden Rosalba take place. On her claiming hispromise of marriage, he mockingly refers her to Arlecchino, who unrollsthe long list of his master's mistresses. It was customary to allow theend of the roll to fall, as if by chance, into the pit, and the audiencedelighted themselves by looking for the names of their friends or connectionsin the list. Rosalba, in despair, casts herself into the sea.^'*88 Riccoboni, Hist. du. Theatre Ital., I., p. 47.89 Castil-Blaze (p. 263) has a list of the editions.3" Goldoni, Mem., I., p. 163. Eximeno, L'Orig. d. Musica, p. 430.91 Cailhava, in an analysis of the Convitato (II., p. 186),' remarks that hehas observed trifling alterations in different performances, but that in essentialsthe piece is always the same. A more detailed analysis of a later piece, differingsomewhat in detail, is given by Castil-Blaze (I., p. 192).^ Castil-Blaze's piece omits this adventure, and begins with Donna Annaand the murder of the Commendatore.a**Castil-Blaze's sketch inserts the peasant wedding here.