Mozart’s terrifying character in the opera ‘Don Giovanni’

Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" is full of drama, ambiguity, comedy, tragedy and even supernatural elements. Don Giovanni is a scoundrel who lives for pleasure, but he meets his match with the character Il Commendatore, the father of a young woman Don Giovanni tries to seduce.

In the first act, Il Commendatore challenges Don Giovanni to a duel over his daughter's honor and loses. But later in the opera, Il Commendatore returns as a frightening supernatural stone statue who brings Don Giovanni to his just demise.

It's a powerful character that inspired an equally powerful statue, called "The Cloak of Conscience" by Anna Chromy.

In this week's episode of Mozart Snapshots, Katie Mahan takes us to the Salzburg replica of the statue and dives into Mozart's timeless opera.

Pianist Katie Mahan is from Golden, Colorado, but lives in Salzburg now for her concert career. She is following in Mozart's footsteps in his home city every week in this video blog series. Come back each week for a new episode.