In Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni (1787), the most famous musical interpretation of the story of the legendary woman-conqueror, two recurrent themes in Lorenzo da Ponte’s libretto attract attention. The first is Don Giovanni’s insatiable desire for women, which is really an excuse to avoid facing himself. The second is da Ponte’s almost cynical interchanging of the characters’ identities in order to question the validity of Don Giovanni’s behavior. Da Ponte’s Commendatore, the figure called into existence to punish him in the end, is actually Death in various guises, including the death of Don