Giovanni in Print

In the 1810s and 1820s, London became obsessed with Don Juan. William Ayrton’s ambitious production of Mozart and Da Ponte’s Don Giovanni at the King’s Theatre in April 1817 rekindled interest in the well-known tale. Within the next six years, virtually every theatre in London produced a version, many of them comic burlesques. Especially popular was the third burlesque, Giovanni in London (December 1817), which saw Giovanni kicked out of the underworld and back to his old tricks in a new locale: London. The idea of a “sequel” captured the public imagination. From 1820–1823, Giovanni appeared in the countryside, Paris, Botany, and Ireland and was even reimagined as a vampire. While Giovanni traveled to many locales, perhaps his main destination was “Giovanni in Print.” Print culture enabled these productions’ existence. With no performing rights instituted until 1833, if managers could access printed materials for Don Giovanni, they could stage versions of it. Print culture was also crucial to these burlesques’ comedy, which was achieved by blending Mozart’s opera with current events reported in the press, contemporary novels, and other Giovanni burlesques and stage works. An examination of “Giovanni in Print” emphasizes how print culture was not a simple reflection of operatic life, but an integral part of creating theatrical works to begin with and a means to advertise, memorialize, interpret, and ultimately reshape the theatrical experience.