Vienna, like most cosmopolitan cities was eager to show its refinement during the 18th century. Opera Seria with libretti by Metastasio were considered to be the standard in excellence for poetry and textural writing in the genre. There were, however; many theatres performing Opera Buffa and some pieces in German such as the Karntnertortheater and the Burgtheater. These institutions were rented out to companies performing a variety of works including pieces by Felix Kurz which featured Ballet and singing as well as Haydn. The latter theater was occupied from around 1750 by a group of French actors and was supported by the court. This company performed the latest comic operas popular in Paris as well as Vaudeville acts featuring jokes and popular tunes. There were some attempts at German language opera and singspiel but this did not really become solidified until after the “Seven Years War” of 1756 to 1763. After that period composers such as Hiller and librettists like Koch often borrowed heavily from English ballad opera to bring a more rustic, mass-centered entertainment that featured spoken dialogue and simple songs. Examples of this genre included Der Lustige Schuster which was performed in 1766 and Die Liebe auf dem Lande from 1768.
The singspiel model became very successful and the style spread through German speaking lands, and this seemed to satisfy the rural individuals to whom traveling performers would entertain. Back in Vienna, however; the emphasis was going to be on Opera Buffa, this was in large part due to Joseph II commandeering the Burgtheater in order to cultivate new comic opera for his noble patrons. Buffa was no longer the economical enterprise that it had been in Italy just a number of years earlier when it had just escaped the confines of the Intermezzi but through negotiations with singers and a talented theatre manager, Venice would boast some of the greatest singers and actors in the genre during the late 18th century. These singers included Francesco Benucci and Nancy Storace, Michael Kelly and Francesco Bussani. Soprano voices were late to come in but eventually Luisa Laschi and Celeste Coltellini joined before the end of the 1780’s. It would be under these circumstances that Mozart’s most successful Italian language pieces were to be performed.
Mozart’s output in terms of opera was not strictly Italian “Buffa” style pieces. His first large success came from the Opera Seria piece Idomeneo, a setting of a Metastasio libretto about events following the Trojan War on the island of Crete. Idomeneo was a moderately successful piece but does not seem to be memorable for Mozart’s followers in his lifetime. When the composer arrives in Vienna he obtains a commission to write an opera to a German language libretto that would be called; Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail with a libretto by Chrostoph Bretzner and Gottleib Stephanie. The general synopsis of the work is that the Juvenile Belmount is searching for his kidnapped fiancé and finally rescues her, only to be trapped by the hostile captor who eventually succumbs to his own pity for the young characters. The piece garnished a fair amount of support in Prague as well as the rest of German speaking lands. Following the success Mozart began a professional relationship with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte with whom he would write his most well known and successful comic pieces; Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan Tutte staged in 1786, 1787 and 1790 respectively. “The marriage of Figaro” is adapted by a popular play by the poet and playwright Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais and was forbidden by Joseph II to be performed, it was Da Ponte who would change his mind and allow the project to go forward. “Figaro” apparently had mixed reviews when it premiered in Vienna but in Prague it was a giant success which fostered the support for the composition of Don Giovanni (to be discussed in more detail further in this essay) which opened in Prague. The third work seems to be the most acclaimed by critics and historians, Cosi fan Tutte opened in Vienna and is said by Edward Dent to be “The best of all Da Ponte’s librettos and the most exquisite work of art among Mozart’s operas.” “Cosi” was a work of substantial success in Vienna and shortly thereafter Da Ponte found work abroad eventually emigrating to the United States and becoming a professor of Italian language at Columbia University and an avid spokesperson for opera in the new world. Mozart’s final work for the stage was Die Zauberflote which was completed a short time before Mozart’s death; it is essentially a singspiel on a fantastical plot that deals with Masonic philosophy and magical entertainments. “The Magic Flute” is notable for very catchy arias as well as having a colorful cast and adventurous plot line.
For purposes of depth, this paper will concern itself primarily with the Mozart and Da Ponte collaboration of Don Giovanni. The rendition viewed prior to the writing of this essay was the Deutsche Grammophon edition directed by Wilhelm Furtwangler, recorded in 1994 with a DVD released in 2001. The cast includes; Cesare Siepi as Don Giovanni, Deszo Ernster as Il Commendatore, Elisabeth Grummer as Donna Anna, Anton Dermota as Don Ottavio, Lisa Della Casa as Donna Elvira, Otto Edelmann as Leporello, Erna Berger as Zerlina and Walter Berry as Masetto. The production was done exclusively for video and did not contain a live audience. Overall, the recording quality was the level one expects from Deutsche Grammophon and the set design by Clemens Holzmeister made for a vibrant stage complete with grand edifices and pillars.
This work is not by definition an Opera Buffa, but rather carries the denotation “Drama Giocoso” which was a common description for Opera Seria at the time; this is partially supported by the overture which is something of a dark and dreary ominous sounding work that signals to the audience that something is looming over the opera. This isn’t to say that the piece is without comedy, as will be seen; in general it is somewhat difficult to pinpoint this work in any exclusive genre.
Any individual who chastises opera as being boring should make it a point to see the first act of Don Giovanni, from the onset of the piece (after the woeful declamation of Leporello over his mundane life) the audience is enticed to bickering over sexual conquest, a swordfight a death and humor about death. At this point it is not hard to appreciate the Don Juan character, from the audience’s perspective he has just had a consensual night with Donna Anna and is trying to leave when she keeps making noise, her father comes out to defend her honor and Don Giovanni offers him ample opportunity to avoid a fight, when the Commendatore is killed there is a tendency to think “that’s too bad” but not blame the Don too much. In a slightly later scene, however; when the audience first meets Donna Elvira, the audience starts to get a taste for Don Giovanni’s lackluster moral outlook as he appoints his servant the task of entertaining Donna Elvira with a song about the Don’s list of conquests. It is here that there must be some mention of the number of Spanish women slept with in the refrain, 3000 to be exact whereas in Germany, Austria and Italy there were nowhere near that many. A consideration should be made that this was a humorous insult to the propriety of Spanish girls as the opera had little hope of being performed in that country. At this point there is still a measurable amount of sympathy for Don Giovanni as he leads an idealized lifestyle that most men would eagerly take up (as evidenced from the numerous stories filling the 18th century about sexual conquests and even religious fables stretching back into history, such as the promise in the Islamic faith of 72 virgins). It is also conceivable that many women might find this kind of behavior alluring, which can be supported by the many romance novels filling bookshelves that deal with the ‘taming’ of womanizing men. Therefore; at this point there is still an open possibility of redemption for the main character.
The wedding party of peasant people operates like the innocent songs of young people dancing happily in the morning. When Don Giovanni enters there is almost an air of disease as he works a plan for separating the betrothed Masetto from his bride to be Zerlina. Here the audience is made more aware of the Don’s scoundrel like behavior but equal judgment must be passed on the fickle Zerlina who would quickly give up her soon to be husband for Giovanni’s empty promises of marriage. When Donna Elvira comes into the duet to warn Zerlina about Giovanni, the Don’s statements about Elvira being infatuated with him are actually true, but his intentions with the girl are Elvira’s motivation for saving her and not jealousy. This is the first moment we see a genuine moral cannon in the piece, with the entrance of Ottavio and Donna Anna, the three of them create a stable center of moral clarity and the fact that there are three of them is no coincidence. Furthermore the righteous trio represents the ideal of what nobility should be; honest, restrained, pious, well-spoken and conservative whereas Giovanni is shown more and more to be a nave that uses his position to ensnare women.
The righteous trio is lifted to a loftier and saintly judgmental position when they arrive at the wedding party is mask. The trio, started off by Donna Anna begins with the words “May heaven protect my zeal” and takes very much the character of a religious hymn. Then when Giovanni finally tries to take advantage of Zerlina their role as judge is secured. This is a very interesting section of the Opera, because while stately dance music is being played by on-stage musicians (a feat that is often discussed by music historians) there is dialogue being sung that seems to show the falseness of Don Giovanni and his schemes. This is not quite the Leitmotifs of Wagner or the Idea Fixe of Berlioz but there is something of a tone-painting going on. There is pious music for the pious characters, a waltz for the rustic characters and stately dance music for the nobility. This is also an aspect that will repeat itself throughout the opera.
After the party turns into a lynch mob it is up to Don Giovanni and Leporello to escape. After a lengthy scene of the two mocking Donna Elvira in juvenile fashion to come down and leave with who she thinks is her husband, Don Giovanni sings the famous and often recorded serenade “Deh Vieni alla Finestra.” The piece is notable for its immediately pleasing lullaby and folk-song like melody. Again, there is some possibility for redemption here as the piece sounds relatively sincere even though that is not the case as his intentions continue to be fundamentally sexual even in light of his potential doom through being hunted down by Ottavio and Masetto. Though Giovanni is a scoundrel, the audience can at least admire his courage whereas all empathy for Masetto disappears after being beaten and needing his fickle wife to care for him in a motherly fashion, it appears that the Don is not so outmatched, this point is further punctuated by the fact that Zerlina carries Masetto’s guns for him.
What is also interesting is the relationship between Don Giovanni and Leporello which ventures on the homoerotic. This is due to the fact that Giovanni tends to treat his servant much as he does the women in his life using them both as long as they are useful with no genuine human care at all. This is where the audience’s sympathy for the main character is truly cut off at the root. The Don’s arrogance in the graveyard at asking the statue to dinner only to frighten Leporello, his gluttonous eating habits while his servant starves, his mockery of Donna Elvira for trying to save him and his final pride over not repenting and rather journeying into hell are all anti-sympathetic traits. In this respect the opera finally takes on its more socio-political message as Giovanni being the embodiment of the seven deadly sins of Catholicism; lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, wrath and envy, although God or Jesus are never mentioned in the opera, which might have something to do with it being written and performed during the enlightenment. The final moral message is summed up by the remaining main characters who decide that they will pursue lives of noble meaning to further themselves in not falling into the Don’s trap and following him to hell.
For aspects of the opera that are specifically musical; it is very interesting that there is such a strong reliance on solo voices with very little chorus activity in such a large cast. This is a particular contrast with both earlier operas such as Dido and Aneas by Purcell and later operas such as Beethoven’s Fidelio which makes use of the chorus as a fraternal sound of freedom at the closing of the piece. Furthermore; when voices are operating together in an ensemble or duet, often one voice will relegate itself almost as an orchestral instrument singing arpeggios along with the accompaniment in order to provide ample room for the principal voice. As mentioned before the tone-painting that occurs during the piece is moderately obvious, from the simple rustic dance scene of the wedding, to the declamatory, almost Gregorian chant like melody of the statue singing in the graveyard there is a great deal of musical variety happening in this opera.
It is easy to see why this piece is deemed by scholars and opera enthusiasts as the masterpiece it is. The music of Mozart is timeless and the text by Da Ponte flows in a way that makes it easy to understand while still being poetic. The opera lasts nearly 3 hours and yet, viewing the work is no great task as it is enjoyable and fast-paced from the beginning to the end. The moral message, while somewhat preachy was necessary in order to justify having such insidious situations on stage, but that is often the counterpoint to the aspects of the theatre the audience wants to see. In the final analysis, it is not difficult to understand why Don Giovanni is one of the most often performed operas by companies all around the world.
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