Mozart’s Don Giovanni premiered in October 1787, in Prague (it was not performed in the UK until 1817). Based on the legend of Don Juan, it tells the tale of an unrepentant, notorious, womaniser as his immoral ways ultimately lead to his downfall. It marked Mozart’s second collaboration with librettist Da Ponte (after The Marriage of Figaro and before Così fan tutte). An opera in two acts, it is often considered the greatest opera ever composed. As Welsh National Opera begins preparation for our Spring 2022 Season performances of Don Giovanni, read on for more nuggets on this famous and popular opera.
A comedy with drama, tragedy and even the supernatural, Don Giovanni is difficult to put within a single opera genre. Mozart considered it a dramma giocoso, literally a drama with jokes. The opera follows a serial philanderer through a day in his life. However, this day is different: he fails to make a conquest. It all appears to go downhill for him after the murder (surely making it a black comedy in today’s language?)
With the lead character, Don Giovanni, lacking in morals – he has no reservations, even when one of his conquests ends in a death – yet he somehow manages to get women addicted to him. As an audience we question how he gets away with it, is it his social standing?
The character of Don Ottavio can be seen as Don Giovanni’s opposite – similar in social rank, but who behaves as good gentlemen should. He is the only tenor in the opera, usually the voice type of the hero. Another comment by Mozart perhaps? Other characters include Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant; Donna Elvira, who is supposedly Don Giovanni’s wife but as this happens prior to the opera, all we really know is that she is one of his conquests. His other victims (both actual and attempted) we meet during the production are Donna Anna, whose father is the Commendatore, himself a major player in the opera storyline; Zerlina, a peasant whose wedding day sets the backdrop for the story; also, Elvira’s nameless maid. The other main male characters are Masetto, who is Zerlina’s groom/fiancé; along with the Commendatore, Donna Anna’s father and the murder victim.
Don Giovanni was written during the Enlightenment and only two years before the French Revolution, so could Mozart have been commenting on the inequalities inherent in the class system? After all, it is only the lower classes, ie Zerlina and Masetto, who end the opera completely happily: Donna Anna puts back her wedding to Don Ottavio; Donna Elvira goes into a convent rather than looking for a better man; and Leporello finds a new master rather than being able to live his own life.
A morally ambivalent story – it is, ultimately, left to the audience to decide: is Don Giovanni purely evil, or a result of circumstance? Perhaps put yourself in his shoes, would you take the opportunity given and promise to change your ways to save yourself, or would you go to your death the way you lived your life, refusing to repent?