Nathan John Martin has recently resuscitated the discussion of sonata-based forms in opera arias penned during the Classical era, specifically exploring the sonata-like characteristics of arias in Mozart's late operas. Graham Hunt has taken this endeavor a step further, outlining a list of "aria-sonata forms" that resemble Hepokoski and Darcy's five sonata types, based on the tendencies revealed in a corpus study of operatic numbers. Using Hunt's adjusted aria-sonata typology, as well as William Caplin's formal-function methodology, this paper focusses on arias by the three leading female characters from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina. Aspects of the form, particularly the idiosyncratic "replacement subordinate theme" in the recapitulation, will be considered against the backdrop of the text, dramaturgy, and the female characters' mental states. At times, a replacement subordinate theme can appear in a faster tempo following a double-bar, creating what is sometimes referred to as a "Rondó" form, a form typically associated with high-class or "opera seria" female characters.

From a broader perspective, this paper also adopts Nathan Martin's philosophy that "Caplin's approach can offer a clear and potentially illuminating way to talk about Mozart's music for the operatic stage," and seeks to challenge James Webster's claim that "invok[ing] instrumental formal types as the primary basis for understanding arias may be irrelevant, if not positively misleading."