Don Giovanni, the greatest opera of all time according to Wagner, Rossini and Gounod, was extremely successful in Prague (the premiere was held on the 29th of October 1787), but in Vienna received a relatively cool reception. According to Kaiser Joseph II, the music by Mozart was “indeed overly complicated for singing”. One of the critics of the 1780s expressed a similar, far from singular, opinion the following way: “The beauty, grandeur and nobility of this music will always be no more than a lot for the chosen. This music is unfit for the ears of the majority: it just tickles the ear leaving the heart unsatisfied”.

In the 18th century, the plot about the Spanish grandee Don Giovanni was probably the most popular. The love affairs and adventures found a great response in the spirit of the century, that doubted and could laugh at anything. Numerous “dongiovannies” had been present on various European stages before, appearing as servant Harlequin in the Italian commedia dell'arte, as Hans Wurst in Germany and Austria… Audiences observed how Don Giovanni was fried in a hellish frying pan for his lecherous feats not without a gloating satisfaction.