Catalogue Aria

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Catalogue Aria. Nickname for Leporello's aria in Act 1 Sc. 2 of Mozart's Don Giovanni in which he recounts to Donna Elvira a list of the Don's amorous conquests in various countries, ending each instalment with the words ‘but in Spain, a thousand and three (mille e tre)’. This aria was probably modelled on a similar one in Gazzaniga's Don Giovanni, the rapid singing of a list of items being a popular feature of 18th-cent. comic opera.