This paper focuses on religious and moral aspects in two of Mozart’s late masterpieces, his opera Il dissoluto punito, ossia Il Don Giovanni and the Requiem. The analysis of Da Ponte’s libretto and musical dramaturgy calls attention to two important features of the opera: first, its heroes’ refusal to abide by “the duty of honor” (the bloody vengeance on Don Juan), and second, the composer’s horror in the face of the sinner’s punishment from above, which according to the laws of reasonable justice he ought to place in the end of the work. The text and music of several important scenes suggest a reflection of the medieval Dies irae sequence in the “punishment of the libertine”. Directly employing the text of the sequence in his last work, Mozart was able to openly express his own vision of the Last Judgment. Full of horror, the author’s part of Requiem’s score reveals the anxiety of a sinner waiting for a just punishment. The essence of medieval sequence, with its hopes set on the grace of God and the triumph of justice, does not find a place in Mozart’s music. With no faith in the mercy of traditional deities, the dying composer left the world the few rhymes of Lacrimosa. In accordance with Mozart’s sense of morality, sinners and the just men (if there are any) are deplored alike, and remain undifferentiated in the piece…
Abstract