marty sohl / metropolitan opera
“Madamina, il catalogo è questo…”
In Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Leporello’s famous aria lists the hundreds of
women his master has seduced—but there are almost as many interpretations
of the legendary title character by other artists, before and after Mozart.
Check out these quotes from the Don himself, taken from famous stories,
songs, plays, and movies. Can you match each excerpt with its source?
1 George Bernard Shaw’s play
Man and Superman (1903)
2 Mozart and Da Ponte’s
opera Don Giovanni (1787)
3 Lord Byron’s epic poem
Don Juan (1819–24)
4 Jeremy Leven’s film
Don Juan DeMarco,
starring Johnny Depp and
Marlon Brando (1994)
5 The Andrew Sisters
and Desi Arnaz’s song
“Old Don Juan” (1955)
6 Molière’s play Dom Juan
(1665)
7 Balzac’s short story
The Elixir of Life (1830)
8 Buddy Holly’s song
“Modern Don Juan” (1956)
9 Vincent Sherman’s film
The Adventures of Don Juan,
starring Errol Flynn (1948)
A. No, no: constancy is for insensitive clods alone. All
fair women have the right to enchant us, and the fact
that we’ve met one of them first shouldn’t deprive all
the rest of their just claim on our hearts.
B. Well, I ain’t nothin’ but a man in love.
C. It’s true I’ve done some fighting in my time, but it’s
usually been for something worthwhile like, uh, a
beautiful woman. To risk your skin for a piece of
extra ground—that is terrifying!
D. The old man called it murder, because he was, he
said, defending his daughter’s honor. By this he
meant that because I foolishly fell in love with
her and told her so, she screamed; and he tried to
assassinate me after calling me names.
E. Ah, how delicious! That scent is, surely, feminine!
F. This would have been a very good time for me to lie.
But truth is a terrible habit.
G. All of Spain was enchanted by my refrain; I sang this
song, and I could not go wrong.
H. Ah, you will forgive me, will you not, dear friends,
dear wife? I am rather a nuisance.
I. Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, /
Sermons and soda water the day after.
Answers: 1-D, 2-E, 3-I, 4-F, 5-G, 6-A, 7-H, 8-B, 9-C