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→Structure and Musical Style: characterization
==Structure and Musical Style==
==Structure and Musical Style==
''Don Giovanni'', in contrast to Mozart's other operatic achievements, is cast in two long acts -- rather than three or four acts, which was the norm. It's to the credit of DaPonte's tight dramatic pacing and Mozart's excellent music that the longer acts only intensify the drama. Compared to ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'', the first collaboration of Mozart and DaPonte, there is less reliance on [[recitative]], and more through-composition of scenes, lending the opera a more immediate and accessible quality.
''Don Giovanni'', in contrast to Mozart's other operatic achievements, is cast in two long acts -- rather than three or four acts, which was the norm. It's to the credit of DaPonte's tight dramatic pacing and Mozart's excellent music that the longer acts only intensify the drama. Compared to ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'', the first collaboration of Mozart and DaPonte, there is less reliance on [[recitative]], and more through-composition of scenes, lending the opera a more immediate and accessible quality.
As with all mature Mozart operas, the musical style is varied among characters in order to delineate their personalities. Thus, the peasant couple Zerlina and Masetto sing in a more rustic style, with peasant dance rhythms predominating. Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, on the other hand, are noblewomen who sing in a more florid, exalted style. The Commandant, when he sings as a ghost/statue, is accompanied by frightening harmonies and a slow tempo. The semantics of various [[key (music)|keys]] also plays a role in their characterization, as often the case in Mozart's operas: typically, simple keys such as F and G major are given to lower-class characters, and keys with more flats are given to the nobility. The opera's main pair of tonalities, however, is D Minor/Major, as exemplified in the overture and the musical passages at dramatically important moments, such as the so-called "statue music" in Act II.
==External Links==
==External Links==