1787 premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (complete title: Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni, literally, The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni) at the National Theater in Prague; Italian libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte based on the legends of Don Juan, a fictional libertine and seducer, masterfully blends comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements and has proven a fruitful subject for writers and philosophers.
1952 Ida Kavafian – Turkish-born American violinist (72 years old); founder of two prestigious music festivals: the Bravo Vail Valley Music Festival and the Music from Angel Fire.
1955 first performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 by the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, with soloist David Oistrakh; originally listed as Op 77, but because of the uncertainty of the political climate, Shostakovich shelved the concerto until after the death of Stalin, and then released the concerto as Op 99.
1956 premiere of the original version Leonard Bernstein's musical Candide in Boston as a trial run at the Colonial Theater directed by Tyrone Guthrie; opened officially in New York at the Martin Beck Theater on December 1, 1956; according to Opera America magazine, one of the most frequently produced American operas during the past decade.
1967 first performance of Vincent Persichetti's Symphony No. 8 in Berea by the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory Orchestra, George Poinar conducting.