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Cultural influence

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote a long essay in his book Enten – Eller in which he argues, writing under the pseudonym of his character "A", that "among all classic works Don Giovanni stands highest." Charles Gounod wrote that Mozart's Don Giovanni is "a work without blemish, of uninterrupted perfection." The finale, in which Don Giovanni refuses to repent, has been a captivating philosophical and artistic topic for many writers including George Bernard Shaw, who in Man and Superman parodied the opera (with explicit mention of the Mozart score for the finale scene between the Commendatore and Don Giovanni). Gustave Flaubert called Don Giovanni, along with Hamlet and the sea, "the three finest things God ever made." E. T. A. Hoffmann also wrote a short story derived from the opera, "Don Juan", in which the narrator meets Donna Anna and describes Don Juan as an aesthetic hero rebelling against God and society.

In some Germanic and other languages, Leporello's " Catalogue Aria " provided the name " Leporello list" for concertina-folded printed matter, as used for brochures, photo albums, computer printouts and other continuous stationery.

Playwright Peter Shaffer used Don Giovanni for a pivotal plot point in his play Amadeus, a fictional biography of its composer. In it, Antonio Salieri notices how Mozart composed the opera while tortured by the memory of his imposing, deceased father Leopold, and uses the information to psychologically torture Mozart even further.