Printed, Manuscript
26 pages
Author(s)
Don Juan's zweites Leben
The play appears to be a sequel to Mozart’s Don Giovanni, from which it takes several musical compositions (while some tunes are borrowed from Carl Maria von Weber). Here, Ludwig Koch parodies the opera. In fact, parodies of operas were a very popular genre at the time and some other examples of it are found in the repertory of Josef Leonhard Schmid (Pocci would also invent a similar type of sequel to The Enchanted Flute in Casperl in der Zauberflöt). The text of Don Juan's zweites Leben was published by collector and musicologist Karl Engel in his series Deutsche Puppenkomödien – without the name of the author, however. Engel only had access to the official version of the play, that is, the one Schmid had submitted to the police of Munich for examination. But the collection of puppet plays of the Münchner Stadtmuseum has copies of the play onto which the puppeteer pasted leaves giving another, more licentious version of Don Juan’s second life.
The seducer is chastised
Don Juan is set free from hell on the condition that he leads one thousand and three women to ruin. When he comes back on earth, the seducer appoints Kasperle as his servant, under the name Casparello. The fairy Innocentia goes after them to protect the innocence of young women. The task will prove difficult. Don Juan arrives near Barcelona, where he chances on one of his old victims, Zerline, who is now old and desperately looking for a man. Don Juan and Kasperle flee as quickly as possible when they see her. Innocentia chases them relentlessly and locks Kasperle up in a cage as he sleeps, but she falls in love with him then. Don Juan comes on and frees the prisoner. In Turkey, Don Juan seduces Fatime, a slave to the cadi Mustapha. Both the master and the servant are arrested and sentenced to death. But Lucifer appears and takes Don Juan with him in hell, for having failed to seduce one hundred and three women. Innocentia also appears and takes Kasperle with her in her palace in the clouds.
Other titles
First performance
First evidenced show by Josef Leonhard Schmid, Münchner Marionettentheater
Publications and translations
Karl Engel: Deutsche Puppenkomödien, 12, Oldenburg/Leipzig, Schulze, 1892