IL DON GIOVANNI TENORIO DI CARLO GOLDONI. ALLE ORIGINI DI UN MITO MODERNO

Abstract

This article investigates, analyses and reassesses the poetic interpretation of
the myth of Don Giovanni Tenorio by Carlo Goldoni published in 1735.
Goldoni’s Don Giovanni has been largely neglected or dismissed as the
product of an early period of artistic immaturity. However, Goldoni’s version of
the myth inherited all the most prominent elements of earlier versions (Tirso
de Molina, Giovan Battista Andreini and Molière) but adapted it to an extent
that future readings of the myth would be fundamentally affected. By
transforming the protagonist's religious impiety into sexual incontinence,
Goldoni draws a link between Molière's drama (1665) and the version set to
music by Mozart in 1787. An analysis of the text with a focus on the reception
and adaptation by Goldoni of the early plays reveals the centrality of his Don
Giovanni in the modern conception of the myth as well as its role as a literary
source for the librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte.