Date of composition: 1761
Premiere: 17 October 1761 at the Old Burgtheater, Vienna
Duration: 45 minutes
Performances by the Berliner Philharmoniker:
for the first time on 4 December 2025 under the direction of Jordi Savall
When the ballet-pantomime Don Juan premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 17 October 1761, few would have realised that a milestone in the history of ballet was reached that evening. After all, Le Festin de Pierre (The Stone Banquet), as the work was then titled, was one of the first fully-realised ballets en action, since a complete dramatic plot – Don Juan’s unrepentant descent into the depths of hell – was portrayed without spoken or sung text, using only gesture, facial expression, and music. The choreography was by the ballet master of the Viennese court, Gasparo Angiolini, who also danced the title role and collaborated with the librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi on the scenario. The plot was based on Molière’s comedy Dom Juan ou Le Festin de Pierre of 1665.
A decisive contribution to the success of Don Juan came from Gluck’s groundbreaking music, which possessed all the qualities needed to illustrate the action convincingly without a spoken word – for instance, when the oboe takes over Don Juan’s seductive serenade to Donna Elvira. In the description of the action that Angiolini and Calzabigi wrote for the premiere audience, the dance piece is described as “a kind of declamation, conceived for the eyes, whose message is conveyed through the music, which varies its tones according to whether the pantomime wishes to express love or hatred, anger or despair”.
The impact Gluck’s music must have had at this spectacular premiere can hardly be overstated. The diaries of the theatre enthusiast Count Karl von Zinzendorf (which vividly describe Viennese theatrical life during this period), note that the action was “extremely sad, melancholy and terrifying”. The final scene, in which the spirit of the murdered Commendatore appears to the most famous seducer in literary history, left the audience breathless: furies rose up to devour Don Juan, while an earthquake reduced the sets to ruins.
Gluck’s opening Larghetto conjures up an ominous calm before the storm, with gently undulating string figures that are eventually interrupted by shrill outbursts. “Suddenly,” Zinzendorf wrote, “the infernal underworld appears; the furies dance with burning torches and torment Don Juan; in the background, a great firework display can be seen, representing the flames of hell; and devils too, who finally seize Don Juan and hurl him into a blazing abyss.”