Ah! chi mi dice mai

W.A. Mozart
"Don Giovanni"
Act l Donna Elvira "Ah, chi mi dice mai" & Recitativo
Arleen Auger - Donna Elvira
Alan Titus - Don Giovanni
Rolando Panerai - Leporello
Rafael Kubelik
Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Painting of Don Giovanni (3:45) - Francisco d'Andrade (1859 - 1921), Portugese Baritone painted by Max Slevogt, 1912.

Don Giovanni was premiered in Prague on October 29, 1787. Da Ponte's libretto was billed like many of its time as dramma giocoso, a term that denotes a mixing of serious and comic action. Mozart entered the work into his catalogue as an "opera buffa". Although often classified as comic, it is a unique blend of comic (buffa) and drama (seria). The opera blends comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements.

- Synopsis -
Don Giovanni, a young nobleman, after a life of amorous conquests, meets defeat in three encounters. The first is with Donna Elvira, whom he has deserted but who still follows him. The second is with Donna Anna, who must postpone her marriage to Don Ottavio after Don Giovanni tries to rape her and kills her father, the Commendatore, escaping afterwards. The third is with Zerlina, whom he vainly tries to lure from her fiancé, the peasant Masetto. All vow vengeance on Don Giovanni and his harassed servant Leporello. Elvira alone weakens in her resolution and attempts reconciliation in the hope that Giovanni will reform. Don Giovanni's destruction and deliverance to hell are effected by the cemetery statue of the Commendatore, who had accepted the libertine's invitation to supper.