Manuscript
The Liszt autograph manuscript for the nearly completed work is housed at the Stiftung Weimarer Klassik/Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv, Weimar (shelf mark GSA 60/I 45). There is no title, date or place of composition, or signature. It consists of 50 unnumbered pages of music. The dedication to Monsieur de Gericke Conseille de Legation is on p. 38.
Liszt based his piece on two arias from the opera The Marriage of Figaro: Figaro's "Non più andrai" (Act I) and Cherubino's "Voi che sapete" (Act II); and the dance scene from the Act I finale of Don Giovanni. The dramatic opening is a free paraphrase of "Non più andrai" followed by an arrangement of "Voi che sapete" in A flat major instead of Mozart's B flat major. This is the only appearance of Cherubino's music; it does not recur. Figaro's aria returns, initially in its original C major, but is quickly varied both harmonically and pianistically. However, instead of proceeding to Mozart's coda, the aria transitions to the dances from Don Giovanni. In the opera, the dances are a minuet in 3/4, a country dance in 2/4, and a quick waltz in 3/8. Liszt keeps the minuet in F major, and combines it with the country dance in the same key. He does not add the waltz as Mozart does, but treats it separately, eventually combining it with the country dance and, interestingly, a portion of Figaro's aria. A series of modulations follow which combine bits of all four themes. At the final transition, the earlier material from Figaro is reused alongside the theme from the minuet. This leads to the coda, which finishes Figaro's aria and breaks off just before the likely end of the piece.
The selection and juxtaposition of themes from Figaro and Don Giovanni may have had special significance for Liszt. The Australian-born pianist, and noted performer of Liszt's music, Leslie Howard describes it as follows:
Bearing in mind George Bernard Shaw's perceptive observations upon Liszt's musical interpretation of the morality of the Don in the Don Giovanni Fantasy, it might be similarly if cautiously suggested that the combination and disposition of the themes in the minuet scene in the present work also adumbrate a moral fable: that the flirtatiousness of Cherubino which may seem harmless enough at the beginning could be leading to the unforgivable behaviour of a Don Giovanni, unless good common sense (See Figaro: "Non più andrai...") hinders him from doing so.
Read more about this topic: Fantasy On Themes From Mozart's ''The Marriage Of Figaro'' And ''Don Giovanni''
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