Don Giovanni By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Opera  DON GIOVANNI (Don Juan )  Opera in two acts – watch the interviews at intermission and then take care of your needs  sung in Italian  Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)  Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte  First performed on October 29, 1787, at the National Theater (now called the Estates Theater), Prague  Opera buffa – comic opera

Don Giovanni Factoids  Giovanni Factoids:  Giovanni is called a dramma giocoso, a term that means a mixing of serious and comic action.dramma giocoso  Mozart composed Don Giovanni when he was 26 years old.  The Story of Don Juan has been around for over 400 years. Literary historians believe that the story was published in Spain around  Don Giovanni premiered in Prague in  Is the seventh most-performed opera in the world.

The Singers Mariusz Kwiecien Don Giovanni (baritone)  “Pond scum serial seducer”  A dark, complex individual  Shows many layers

Marina Rebeka Donna Anna (soprano)  Engaged to Don Ottavio

Barbara Frittoli Donna Elvira (soprano)  Seduced and left by Don earlier

Ramón Vargas Don Ottavio (tenor)  Engaged to Donna Anna

Zerlina  Seduced by Don at her wedding  Marrying Masetto

Time Period  18 th Century Europe  During the Baroque era of music and ending in the Classical Era

Clothing

Architecture

Historical Details  1750 Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod  The Liberty Bell was ordered  1760 the Industrial Revolution in England begins  1765 James Watt invents the steam engine  1770 the Boston Massacre

 1773 Boston Tea Party  1776 the Declaration of Independence is approved  1787 Constitution of the US signed and Don Giovanni premiers

Don Giovanni is quite a ladies’ man.

Act 1  Leporello – Don Giovani’s servant is outside the palace of the Commendatore (the Commander)  Donna Anna, the Commendatore’s daughter, catches Don in her bedroom and runs outside screaming  Don is wearing a mask and she wants to know his identity

 Hearing her screams, the elderly Commendatore appears  Don and the Commendatore fight and the Commendatore is killed  Anna asks her fiancé, Don Ottavio, to avenge her father’s death

 The next morning Donna Elvira is looking for Don. She was seduced and abandoned in another city and she has come looking for him.  Giovanni slips away, leaving Leporello to distract Elvira.  Leporello shows her a catalogue with the names of the 2,064 other women Giovanni has seduced.

Catalogue Aria  (“Catalogue Aria” starts at 49) – listen and describe the music. (“Catalogue Aria” starts at 49)  How many women has Don seduced? (translation of lyrics)  In Italy six hundred and forty  In Germany two Hundred and thirty one  One hundred in France, in Turkey ninety one  But in Spain there are already a thousand and three

Catalogue Aria Continued  There are among these peasant girls, servants, townspeople,  There are countesses, baronesses, marquesses, princesses.  And there are women of every class, of every shape, of every age.  With blondes he usually praises their manners.

Catalogue Aria Continued  With the brunettes, their faithfulness,  With the gray-haired ones their sweetness,  In the winter he wants the heavy ones  In the summer he wants the slim ones  The big ones are majestic, the little ones are charming,  He goes after the old ones for the pleasure of putting them on the list

Catalogue Aria Continued  He doesn’t care if a woman is rich, if she’s ugly, if she’s pretty; as long as she has a skirt on

Don Seduces Zerlina on her Wedding Day.

Don and Zerlina Sing as He Seduces her at Her Wedding La’ ci darem la manoLa’ ci darem la mano (Sheryl Crow and Pavarotti) Don: “Let’s go from here, me and you” Zerlina: “I want to but…” Don: “Let’s hurry!” Zerlina: thinks about Masetto Don: “I’ll change your life forever” Zerlina: resistant Don: convinces her Zerlina: Let’s go Together: Let’s go, she sighs

Donna Elvira Ah, fuggi il traditor! Donna Elvira walks in in Don and Zerlina and tries to keep Zerlina from becoming involved with him. She says, “His lips lie, his eyes betray, learn from my torments/trials.”

 Donna Elvira also tries to warn Donna Anna but she and Ottavio don’t know what to believe until she recognizes Don’s voice to be that of her father’s murderer.  Giovanni invites the entire wedding party to his palace for an evening of celebration.  Later that night, Zerlina asks Masetto to forgive her.

Act II  Those attending the celebration wear masks  Leporello exchanges clothes with Giovanni and take Donna Elivra on a walk.  Masetto arrives with a band of peasants to hunt down Giovanni and the disguised Giovanni sends them off in various directions and beats up Masetto.  Leporello fears for his life and reveals his true identity.

 Elvira still loves Giovanni in spite of everything.  In a cemetery, Giovanni and Leporello meet the statue of the deceased Commendatore, who warns Giovanni that by morning he will laugh no longer. Don forces Leporello to invite the statue to dinner and the statue accepts.

Donna Elvira asks Don to change his ways.

 Once again Ottavio asks Donna Anna to marry him but she will not commit until her father’s death is avenged.  Elvira makes one last attempt to get Don to change his ways but he laughs at her.  The figure of the Commendatore enters and asks Giovanni to repent. When Don refuses he is consumed by flames and descends into hell.

Don Giovanni in flames

Points to ponder:  Is Don Giovanni a hero or a villain?  What other characters in movies or plays are like Giovanni?  Do you have any “Don Giovannis around school?” Why do people love him? Why do people hate him?  What parts of the opera are victorious?