Don Giovanni
article by Kelley Rourke
"Why are you talking to me about heaven? Heaven needs to correct its own imperfections, since it has a sun that eclipses, a moon that wanes, stars that bode evil influences. In any case, how can I offend heaven if it is so far away from us? Heaven should mind its own business. Doesn't it have anything else to think of besides me?"
- Andrea Perrucci's Il convitato di pietra , Naples, 1678
Don Juan has been sneering at conventional morality on stages throughout the world since the early 17th century. The story first appeared in print in 1630 in Barcelona, with El burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de piedra . In subsequent years, the Don traveled to Italy, France, Madrid, England, Vienna, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Prague; his story was transmitted through a wide variety of performance styles, from rhymed alexandrine couplets to vulgar commedia dell'arte sketches. By the late 18th century, Mozart and his librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, had a rich tradition of episodes, characters, and ideology to draw on for their operatic retelling of the tale. Da Ponte's dramma giocoso clothes the story of the damned libertine in a dramatic fabric neither entirely tragic nor entirely comic; its overture, with its alternating shades of menace and gaiety, gives us a taste of what lies ahead.
Don Giovanni's sometimes-faithful sidekick, Leporello, opens the opera, complaining of his fate: He must work to facilitate the Don's pleasures, but never enjoys them for himself. The sidekick appears in most other versions of the story under a variety of names, and serves as both comic relief and the voice of reason. Three of Giovanni's conquests appear in the opera: the nobles Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, and the peasant Zerlina. All have their roots in earlier tellings of the tale; traditionally, Don Juan's conquests have been plucked from a wide variety of sources, including nunneries and shipwrecks.
Anna is the first to appear, and when her father, the Commendatore, seeks to protect her from Giovanni's unwelcome attentions, Giovanni kills the old man. Giovanni and Leporello come across Elvira shortly after this episode. She is complaining of her recent betrayal (by Giovanni). Giovanni, not recognizing her at first, suggests they stop to comfort her, but quickly flees the scene when recognized. Leporello attempts to calm Elvira in an aria: "Madamina, il catalogo è questo." In it, he explains to the distraught Elvira that her seduction and abandonment should not be taken personally, as her sisters are many. This "catalogue" of conquests had appeared in the story as early as 1632; however, Mozart's treatment of this relatively brief comic monologue is unparalleled, raising it to one of the great star turns in the basso buffo repertoire, with ample opportunity to exhibit technique, wit, and sensitivity.
Many situations in the opera are farcical in tone, as Giovanni's attempts at seduction are repeatedly thwarted by the appearance of a scorned ex-lover. Giovanni must also contend with Don Ottavio and Masetto (the fiancés of Anna and Zerlina, respectively). Mozart's skillful ensemble writing allows the characters to express simultaneously a variety of perspectives, brilliantly combining dramatic development with musical effect not to mention a formidable technique.
Time and again, Giovanni manages to elude the parties he has injured. When he comes upon a statue of the slain Commendatore, he maintains his confident swagger, going so far as to order Leporello to invite the statue to dinner. The statue accepts the invitation, much to Leporello's horror. In the final scene, the statue appears as promised, offering Giovanni a reciprocal invitation. Still unafraid of retribution, Giovanni accepts, taking the Commendatore's icy hand in his own. When he refuses to repent his sins, Giovanni is dragged to hell. The other characters are left to tidy up the scene in a brief epilogue: Anna postpones her wedding to Ottavio; Elvira joins a convent; Zerlina and Masetto will wed; and Leporello will find another master.
Don Giovanni's musical riches are many, with pitch-perfect musical descriptions of Anna's outrage, Ottavio's tenderness, Elvira's desolation, Masetto's animal rage, and Zerlina's artful feminine wiles. The Don himself has the vaguest musical portrait of the bunch, changing his character according to the situation. He is by turns brutal, gallant, bawdy, sly, and tender. Perhaps it is just this fascinating slipperiness that has attracted audiences to this mythical figure for some 400 years.
