Who wrote the libretto for Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni?

Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote the libretto for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.

Da Ponte’s Italian libretto draws on the long European tradition of the Don Juan story, especially earlier plays and operas about the legendary seducer. Mozart and Da Ponte collaborated on three major operas: Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. Their partnership is one of the most important composer-librettist collaborations of the Classical period.

Don Giovanni premiered in Prague on 29 October 1787. The opera mixes comic and serious elements, a style often described as dramma giocoso. Its central character’s crimes and refusal to repent lead to a supernatural confrontation with the Commendatore.

A common mix-up is to identify Emanuel Schikaneder as the librettist. Schikaneder wrote the libretto for Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which premiered in 1791. Da Ponte, by contrast, supplied the words for Don Giovanni and two other major Mozart operas.