Don Giovanni

Tragi-comedy
Mozart [K527]
The one where the Don has already scored 1965 before the opera begins and makes four further
attempts in the course of it before being consigned to hell.
CAST  
Don Giovanni, a Spanish nobleman Baritone
Leporello, his servant Baritone
The Commendatore, a high official Bass
Donna Anna, his daughter Soprano
Don Ottavio, her fiancé Tenor
Donna Elvira, aristo from Burgos Soprano
Masetto, country fellow, a thickie Baritone
Zerlina, his fiancée Soprano
   
2 acts: running time 2 hrs 30 mins

STORY

Act I Sc 1  Outside Donna Anna’s house. Night

We are somewhere near Seville sometime in the seventeenth century and Leporello is doing
sentry duty outside a house within which his master is up to no good. He grumbles. Giovanni
exits from the house with Donna Anna hanging on to him. She screams very loud. This wakes
her Dad the Commendatore who stumbles on and challenges Giovanni to a duel. Anna exits to
phone the police. Giovanni is not keen to slay an OAP but does so. Exits. Anna returns with Don
Ottavio. Shock horror. She swears vengeance etc.

Act I Sc 2  A street in Seville. Dawn

Leporello asks Giovanni can he speak frankly. Go ahead says Giovanni. You are living a horrible
life says Leporello. Belt up says Giovanni I smell woman. They hide: enter Donna Elvira. Wow!
says Giovanni a good looker. Hey ho sings Elvira I am sad: I have been deserted by my lover.
Poor sweet says Giovanni let me help. He steps out. Madam he says – oh shit says Leporello it’s
Elvira. Giovanni! you stinking double-crossing stoat says Elvira. Cool it cool it says Giovanni.
You horrible man you says Elvira you got me into bed promising marriage then stood me up.
Leporello kindly tell the lady the facts of life says Giovanni. Exits.
Leporello reads a catalogue of Giovanni’s score in the EU sex league: Italy 640, Germany
231, France 100, Turkey 91, Spain 1,003. He adds that Giovanni is also sexually democratic and
will ravish any class of woman from aristos to beggars any type anywhere any time. Leporello
exits. I’ll get that Giovanni for what he done to me by God I will says Elvira.

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Act I Sc 3  In the countryside. Morning

A gang of peasants enter going on about the wedding of Masetto to Zerlinawho gives us a
lecturette recommending marriage for the leisurely enjoyment of safe sex. Enter Giovanni and
Leporello. Giovanni fancies Zerlina. He tells Leporello to cart off the whole gang to his country
house. I’m not going says Masetto. You bloody well are going says Giovanni: Zerlina is safe with
a titled gent like me. Ho ho says Masetto: watch it Masetto says Giovanni I am a person of some
influence around here. OK OK says Masetto I hear what you say I’ll go.
Giovanni chats up Zerlina: he does a stunning seduction act proposes marriage and says
come and see my etchings my villa is quite close. Zerlina is quite overcome and agrees to view
the etchings. Elvira bursts in. Don’t believe that bastard she cries he’s a double-crossing swine.
Poor lady she is potty about me and has quite lost her marbles says Giovanni to Zerlina. Don’t
believe a word of it cries Elvira: come with me: Elvira and Zerlina exit.
Enter Anna and Ottavio (my God what next thinks Giovanni). I want your help says Anna.
Giovanni (much relieved) replies Yes ma’am I’ll do anything go anywhere to be of service to
you. Enter Elvira: Watch it you folks says she this Giovanni is a snake in the grass, a crook, a
liar, a seducer. The poor lady is in an advanced state of mental illness says Giovanni. She looks
pretty sane to us say Otto and Anna. Elvira shouts you’re as guilty as hell, you’re a criminal,
a liar, etc. Exits. Which one tells truth? ponder Otto and Anna. If I can help let me know says
Giovanni just now I have to see a man about a dog. Exits.
Otto … says Anna … O my God … Otto … I’ve got it … That’s him! Who? asks Otto. Him!
she says him what killed my Dad him what tried to rape me. Tried? asks Otto. No measure of
success I trust? Listen you dumbbell says Anna this is what happened (she gives him a detailed
account: the surprise awakening: a man in her bed: thought it was Otto [Well! well! Ed.]: it
wasn’t Otto: her struggles: her escape: the murder etc.). So we must get him get him! she says.
Revenge is a matter of prime importance to me. Exits. O Lord says Otto one simply can’t relax
when she’s in a state like that. We will only get some peace when she calms down. Exits.
Leporello enters. I can’t stick this job much longer the boss is just impossible says he.
Giovanni enters: How’s it going? he asks. Badly says Leporello. I took that lot home (Bravo!
says Giovanni) I managed to get them to stay (Bravo!) I told Masetto a lot of lies (Bravo!) I
got the whole lot pissed as newts – and who dropped in? Elvira? asks Giovanni. Right says
Leporello and she rubbished you something horrible. So I pushed her out and locked the door
(Bravo! Bravo!). OK says Giovanni now they’re half smashed let’s throw a big party tonight
with dancing and all and just see if I can’t make a few scores actually I have the figure of ten in
mind.

Act I Sc 4  The garden of Giovanni’s house

Masetto is dead jealous. You little tramp says he. He never touched me says Zerlina go on hit
me do what you like to me – you still turn me on whatever you do. Wheedle wheedle I must
be potty to weaken says Masetto (but he does). Giovanni is heard outside. We must hide says
Zerlina. Why? says Masetto. Ahaaa … you don’t want me to see you have made your number
with Giovanni. Not true you bastard says she. Both hide. Giovanni enters plus servants peasants
etc. OK folks he says we’re going to have a great time! It’s party time! Get moving! All exit.

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Giovanni spots Zerlina and resumes his loverly stuff. Masetto jumps out. Hello my lad says
Giovanni Zerlina is extremely anxious to rejoin you. Here she is old chap and let’s all have a
jolly good time at the party. (Masetto goes quietly but only just.) Enter Elvira Otto and Anna in
masks. Gosh! they say a pretty tricky old job this one. It takes guts to get in there and expose
the bastard in his own home. But we’ve got plenty of guts.
Leporello spots the maskers and checks with Giovanni. Hey there! you maskers! he shouts
from window. Like to come to a party? Yeah sure thanks a lot says Otto. The boss will have a go
at those females too thinks Leporello. God preserve us think they.

Act I Sc 5  A ballroom in Don Giovanni’s house

The party is going great guns but sticky in patches. Masetto is crazy jealous: Zerlina is fearful.
The maskers arrive. Giovanni is the perfect host. Everyone sings hurrah for freedom! [Why?
Ed.] The dance restarts. Giovanni tells Leporello to mind Masetto. The maskers are very tense
and not enjoying it much. Giovanni carries Zerlina offstage into a bedroom. Leporello follows
to warn him that Masetto is brewing up. Zerlina screams. The dancing stops. All hell breaks
loose. Giovanni comes on sword drawn dragging Leporello. The dirty skunk it was him that
harassed her says Giovanni. But nobody is fooled.
The maskers unmask and shout Now we’ve got you you dirty beast. A timely thunderstorm
breaks. Giovanni is cornered. There is suspense while all sing What a horrible man you are etc.
Giovanni using Leporello as human shield makes a dash for it and escapes.

Act II Sc 1  A street. Night

Leporello tells Giovanni he’s had enough. I’m off he says. Don’t be a fool says Giovanni and
slips him a couple of monkeys. OK I’ll stay says Leporello if you promise to leave women alone.
You must be mad says Giovanni I can’t live without ’em. (Leporello stays.) Have you seen
Elvira’s maid? asks Giovanni. Whew! a sizzler. Let’s swap costumes: the lower orders prefer sex
with their own kind. (They swap.)
Elvira appears at a window and says Oh that terrible Giovanni I just can’t wash him out of
my hair. Ho ho thinks Giovanni: he shouts up to Elvira I love you still so I do. I’m really sorry
for what I done. Get off says she I don’t believe you. It’s true he says Come on down please.
You take her on Lep my boy says Giovanni I’m off after the maid. Hey! wait a minute! says
Leporello. Belt up and get on with it says Giovanni. Exits.
Elvira enters. Leporello continues to court her as if he were Giovanni. Will you love me
forever? asks Elvira. Sure thing says Leporello. Giovanni yells Murder! murder! just offstage.
Elvira and Leporello run for it. Enter Giovanni. He serenades the maid’s window. She opens
but is interrupted by the arrival of a noisy gang led by Masetto.
Where’s that bastard gone? he shouts. I am Giovanni’s servant says Giovanni Can I be of
service? Where’s your horrible master? asks Masetto. Went thataway says Giovanni no maybe
thataway suggest one party searches to the right one to the left. You stay here Masetto. The
parties go off. Lemme see your cosh says Giovanni (Masetto hands it over). Giovanni hits
Masetto on the head butts him kicks him in the groin etc. etc. Exits. Zerlina comes on. Are you
sick or something? she asks Masetto. I’ve just been nearly beaten to death by that son of a bitch
Leporello says Masetto. Come come poor lovey says Zerlina come up to my place and we’ll do
something to restore your health and spirits.

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Act II Sc 2  A courtyard in Donna Anna’s house. Night

Enter Leporello (still as Giovanni) and Elvira. Leporello tries to find a door to make an escape.
Enter Anna and Otto both still girning on about love revenge etc. Leporello finds a door: Zerlina
and Masetto come in through it. Here he is, shouts Masetto, the dirty skunk. Leave him alone!
says Elvira he’s my man. It’s all a mistake folks says Leporello I am not Don Giovanni at all:
I am his servant Leporello. Leporello? they echo. Gosh. All are bouleversé’ed. Anna exits [no
reason given: Ed.].
So it was you who beat up Masetto says Zerlina. So it was you who fooled me says Elvira.
Sorry folks I couldn’t help myself I was only obeying orders says Leporello. He makes a dash
for the door. Exits. Things are now quiet. Otto says it’s now quite certain that it was Giovanni
who murdered the Commendatore. We must get him. Meanwhile I’m off to sing another tenor
aria to Anna.

Act II Sc 3  A graveyard. Equestrian statue of Commendatore prominent.

Night

Giovanni scales the wall. Cripes! That was a close one! he says. He hears Leporello outside.
Come in shouts Giovanni. Leporello scales the wall. Cripes! he says that was a close one! I was
nearly killed owing to you. Listen to me says Giovanni I met a girl in the street who thought I
was you and said Hey there old Leporello but when I start a little business with her she screams
and raises the alarm so I escape here. How shocking says Leporello she could have been my
wife. And what a laugh if she had been says Giovanni.
Suddenly a spooky voice echoes out: You will laugh no more, it says, after dawn. Whassat?
says Giovanni. The voice booms out again. Show some respect for the dead it says. Mama
mia says Don Giovanni what goes? He reads the inscription on the Commendatore’s plinth.
Vengeance it says.
Tell the old boy to come to dinner tonight says Giovanni to Leporello. Not bloody likely says
Leporello I’m shit scared. Do it! says Giovanni. Leporello addresses the statue: the statue turns
its eyes and nods its head. So you will dine with me? asks Giovanni. Yes says statue. Bloody
queer goings-on says Leporello. We’d better get back home to get the dinner on says Giovanni.

Act II Sc 4  A room in Donna Anna’s house

Otto and Anna going on about revenge as usual. Otto says Why not marry me it would cheer
you up. At a time like this? says Anna you must be out of your mind. Certainly not yet. Ah well
says Otto I only asked.

Act II Sc 5  A room in Don Giovanni’s house

Giovanni is about to eat dinner. His house musicians play pops from contemporary ops.
Giovanni particularly pleased by number composed by himself. He eats (rather disgustingly) a
pheasant leg. Leporello scrounges food. Elvira rushes in: Giovanni she says I’m not asking for
anything but that you change your immoral ways. Live decently. Giovanni sticks up two fingers.
Wine women and women he cries that’s my life. Elvira exits. She screams.

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Go and see what hit her says Giovanni to Leporello. Leporello looks out of the door. He
screams. He chunters with fear … stone man … in white … walking … tatatata … he says. You’re
off your rocker says Giovanni. A knock. Go and see who it is Leporello says Giovanni. Not likely
says Leporello. He dives under the table. The Commendatore stalks in. You asked me to dinner
and here I am says he. Incredible! says Giovanni: Leporello set another cover. I don’t want food
says the Commendatore I have a message. Will you dine with me?
Tell him to forget it says Leporello. I’m not chicken says Giovanni I accept your invitation.
Shake on it says the Commendatore. (They shake.) Zut! says Giovanni his hand is dead cold.
Repent! says the Commendatore. Shan’t says Giovanni. Repent! says the Commendatore. No!
says Giovanni. Your last chance to repent says the Commendatore. No! shouts Giovanni. Time’s
up! says the Commendatore (he fades away). Flames spring up also demons devils demoniac
spirits appear singing. My God! My God! says Giovanni all the tortures of hell are closing in
on me. And serve you jolly well right too sing the demons etc. Going … going … Ahhhh! shouts
Giovanni as he drops into the pit. Ah! echoes Leporello as he sees his master go down for good.

Epilogue

Anna, Otto, Elvira, Zerlina, Masetto ask Leporello where’s he gone? To hell says Leporello. You
see it went this way: this stone man came into the dining room seized Giovanni’s hand and
chucked him into hell. So that’s it. Anna will you marry me asks Otto (yet again). No says she.
I’ll take a raincheck for one year. [And what’s the betting after that? Ed.] I’m going to get me to
a nunnery says Elvira. Domestic bliss for us say Masetto and Zerlina. Off to the JobCentre for
me says Leporello. All of them agree he was a bad man and he got his deserts.

LOOK OUT FOR

MINUTES FROM THE START
0***
The overture0 in its first few bars gives us fair warning that this opera is not going to be all
giocosa (Mozart’s word), that is not all froth and frolic. Even after the dark introduction the
fast bit is still full of menace. A long overture.

Act I Sc 1
MINUTES FROM THE START
8: Non sperar, se non m’occidi**
12: Ma qual mai s’offre**
15: Fuggi, crudele, fuggi!**
After Leporello’s opening whinge we go bang snap into action8 in three stages:
    1. Attempted rape: Donna Anna struggles with Giovanni: she leads the struggle duet in
frightened breathless phrases, Giovanni follows and echoes, Leporello growls away below.
    2. Confrontation, duel and murder. The Commendatore comes on shouting at Giovanni: the
duel is short sharp and orchestral: it ends on a fraught long-held chord – is he dead?
    3. Stunned reaction by Giovanni and Leporello. The Commendatore gasps out – yes, he is
pretty well dead. All of this in three and a half minutes.

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    Mozart’s accompanied recitatifs reach their zenith in this opera. Here we have the whole force
of Donna Anna’s shocked discovery of her dead father carried by an accompagnato12 – biting
strings for horror, woodwind chords for grief. This speaks more directly than could an aria, and
secco would, of course, be puny. Then we dive into the duet15 Donna Anna/Ottavio, she again
leading strongly and decisively, swearing to avenge her father’s death and he limping along
wimpishly below and behind her.

Act I Sc 2
MINUTES FROM THE START
20: Ah, chi me dice mai**
26: Madamma, il catalogo***
Donna Elvira is looking for the man who abandoned her: a bold short aria20 with strong
outlines and lots of unexpected sforzandos. Giovanni is sorry for her (but wait).
    The Catalogue aria.26 Leporello reels off Giovanni’s score in each country (although he
notches up ninety-one in Turkey, sadly he did not perform in England). A delicious allegro:
Leporello unwinds the list with a rather ghastly relish with the whinnying woodwind mocking
poor Elvira. Followed by a much less attractive andante, still mocking but without the bounce
and charm of the first part.

Act I Sc 3
MINUTES FROM THE START
35: Ho capito*
38: Là ci darem la mano***
43: Ah! fuggi il traditor!*
45: Non ti fidar***
48: Don Ottavto, son morta***
51: Or sai chi l’onore***
54: Dalla sua pace***
60: Finch’han dal vino**
Masetto, suspicious (with good reason), warns Zerlina against the upper classes, reluctantly
he agrees to leave her with the Don. Rather a square little number35with an angry beat. Typical
Masetto music: we will hear more like it.
     Giovanni seduces Zerlina rather quickly (three minutes 15 seconds). He wins her with a tune38
that was later to win over the whole musical world. Simple, charming and memorable, it has
been used for variations, musical competitions, translated into solos for piano, oboe, bassoon,
etc. etc. In its proper form and place its freshness never stales. Look out for the doubling of the
melody the second time it comes round, first by the flute then the bassoon.
    Good advice from Elvira: this scrap of cavatina43 packs a punch that would have deterred
any girl of good sense. Elvira’s music is again decisive, firm and with big intervals and strong
accents.
    There are three things going on in this quartet:45 (1) Elvira is determined to expose Giovanni
as a double-crossing con man, (2) Giovanni explains that Elvira is out of her mind, (3) Anna
and Ottavio are puzzled as to which story is true. The quartet starts with a firm sane statement
from Elvira (He’s a beast) followed by a wondering puzzled response from Anna and Ottavio

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(What a fine woman, she’s clearly upset), a response which will crop up again later as they
begin to get really fazed. Then things speed up as Giovanni comes in saying forcibly and pretty
convincingly that she’s potty. Even faster when Elvira rebuffs: now as both he and she get
quicker and quicker, Anna and Ottavio get slower and more thoughtful (Mad? She doesn’t look
so mad), Elvira has quite hysterical little outbursts, patter-runs between breaths. The whole
edifice swings into the minor – back to the major and on to the finish with Giovanni and Elvira
shouting at each other in rapid fire whilst Anna and Ottavio linger over their doubts, which are
now becoming very considerable.
    The apex of Mozart’s accompagnatos48 – the biggest and best in the business. Down in
Donna Anna’s mind something stirs. Hey! she shouts, Good Lord! I know who killed my father!
It was him! Huge dramatic chords. Then she recounts her story, much in the style of a witness
giving evidence in a police court, but more agitato. Ottavio acts as her feed like a professional
stooge. The accompaniment thins out to let her get things off her chest. Lots of words – few
notes. Then Anna sails majestically into her proud and glorious aria.51 Long-breathed with a
memorable melody, lots of high notes (fourteen high As – three of them held for seven beats).
    Ottavio’s serene reaction54 to Anna’s stormy rampage. A honey-sweet tune, with its own
miniclimax and cadentials (I want to be happy But I can’t be happy Till I make you happy too).
    The jolly Giovanni.60 He’s just attempted to rape a woman, killed a man, been abused by an
old mistress, tried to seduce a peasant girl and to con two friends. Now he wants a really good
party with lots of wine, women and song and the prospect of having sex with at least ten of his
female guests. A short, noisy and coarse aria with plenty of gusto. Always gets a huge round
from the house.

Act I Sc 4
MINUTES FROM THE START
63: Batti, batti, o bel Masetto***
69: Zerlinetta mia garbata**
71: Btsogna aver coraggio*
72: Signor, guardate***
73: Protegga il giusto cielo***
Zerlina’s music has simplicity mixed with knowing charm and here she makes her mock-
innocent appeal to Masetto to hit her.63 (It might have changed the course of the opera if he
had – and hard.) A lovely sweet tune with an exceedingly long solo cello weaving around it.
Note especially how the woodwind take over the tune after Zerlina has sung it once and she
then plays second fiddle, well second something, to them.
    The wonderful finale, Mozart’s most elaborate but not his longest, a music drama in itself. It
moves through six stages:
    1. Come to the party. Masetto hears Giovanni coming and there is a nervous whispered duet
as he persuades Zerlina to hide. Giovanni strides in with a flock of servants and peasants and
barks out instructions for the ball: the servants and peasants respond in the dullest twenty bars
in the opera, grovel a bit and exit. Giovanni catches sight of Zerlina and immediately the score
is alight.69 Sweet loverly phrases until Masetto jumps out: Giovanni softens him up, we hear a
snatch of dance music in the distance and they all three decide to get in there and have a good
time (a surprise: we expected Masetto to clock him one).

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    2. And you come to the party too. The trio of antis in masks stand outside Giovanni’s house
screwing up their courage to go to the ball71 [and who told them it was on? Ed.]. They are
serious, even gloomy, in a minor key and as usual Anna takes the lead with a striking vocal line
of her own. The other two are pretty well back-ups. Suddenly magic!72 The key changes, the
tune changes and we hear a distant minuet and to its strains Leporello issues his invitation.
Giovanni backs him up: our trio reply in close harmony (still minuetting), a few more courtesies
and the episode is over. But more magic.73 A short prayer put up by our trio, mainly in the
interests of Anna (Vengeance, please God, and keep us safe too), gloriously scored for wind
quintet and voices and brushed with that special brand of gold dust that Mozart reserved for
wind ensembles.

Act I Sc 5
MINUTES FROM THE START
75: Riposate, vezzose ragazze*
80: Ricominciate il suono!***
81: L’empto crede con tal frode**
82: Trema, trema, o scellerato!**
3. Welcome to liberty hall. We are into the bustle and bash of the party itself.75 Rushing
violins – no dance rhythm yet. Hostly Giovanni chats up guests but it’s clear Masetto is going to
be a problem. All pretty well declaimed against orchestral jollity. A fanfare! The maskers have
arrived: greeting and a lot of shouting about liberty, formal bang bang tonic-dominant stuff.
    4. Not so strictly ballroom. A stately minuet. Giovanni and Leporello get everyone dancing.80
Masetto still a problem. Look after that man says Giovanni. A second orchestra (well, violins
and double-basses) strikes up and thickens the minuet. Comments in character from several
guests. Masetto restive. Giovanni drags Zerlina offstage. Now we have a third orchestra
confusing things but in a very decorous manner. Zerlina screams offstage! All orchestras, all
minuetting stop dead. Bedlam.
    5. Explanations, explanations. A lot of shouting, a lot of unison orchestra and all. Shock.
Horror. Giovanni comes on dragging Leporello. Noisy declamation. He fools no one. The
maskers unmask in a stern trio.81 They enter in canon: Giovanni reacts boldly, but he’s had it.
    6. In a single bound Giovanni faces the mob baying for his blood.82 They bay fortissimo and
there is thunder and lightning too, everything is very loud. But Giovanni does not lose courage.
He slips away, jumps out of a window, into the orchestra pit, or whatever the producer has
arranged for him, usually during the last eight bars of orchestral wind-up.

Act II Sc 1
MINUTES FROM THE START
3: Ah taci, ingiusto core!***
9: Deh vieni alla finestra***
12: Metà di voi*
17: Vedrai, carino**
Elvira comes to the window: Giovanni and Leporello below: she sails into a limpid, calm
aria:3 begins by talking to her heart, telling it not to carry on so, Giovanni is a horror: forget
him. Giovanni and Leporello take the scene aboard in an up-and-down phrase of eight notes:

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Giovanni (unseen) takes over Elvira’s aria tune and tells her he loves her. She can’t believe it
but wants to: he persists and she wonders. The eight-noter pops up again and again as one or
another reacts or reflects. Elaborate, elegant, full of grace, it’s impossible to square the mood of
this piece with the mindless cruelty of what Giovanni is doing to the wretched Elvira. Giovanni
shows no pity, neither does Mozart.
    Giovanni’s serenade.9 Vocal line as smooth as silk: mandolin accompaniment spicy and pert:
short: quite perfect and very famous.
    They went thataway. Giovanni gives instructions to Masetto’s gang.12 A runaway piece that
never comes to anything much but there is some nice work in the orchestra. And one stomach-
turning modulation.
    Zerlina comforts Masetto,17 badly smashed up by Giovanni. A simple vocal line (as always for
her) sweet as honey (but not saccharine) and as soothing as Friar’s Balsam. The sexy, coy coda
would surely turn on any Masetto even when half-dead.

Act II Sc 2
MINUTES FROM THE START
21: Sola, sola in buio loco***
22: Tergi il ciglio**
24: Ferma, briccone**
25: Perdon, perdono**
26: Mille torbidi pensieri**
29: Ah, pietà ! Signori miei!*
31: Il mio tesoro***
37: Mi tradi
So now for the big stuff – barring the act finales, the biggest ensemble in the opera,21 rich,
varied and enormous.
    1. Elvira fears Giovanni (Leporello of course) will leave her. Leporello searches frantically
for the door. A fairly mild start – nice tune from Elvira, Leporel-lo’s answering piece mumbles
around agreeably enough.
    2. A majestic change of key.22 Trumpets and drums. In come Anna and Ottavio. He sings out
(Sorry for Anna) in the bravest style ever and Anna replies (Only death will end my frightful
grief) in typical Anna-music, strong line, free moving. Now we hear a fugitive figure hunting
up and down in the strings and this will hunt with us and haunt us for a long time. Elvira and
Leporello give vent to private thoughts.
    3. Things get tough for Leporello.24 He is identified as Giovanni, cornered and confronted
(a lot of the hunting figure). Elvira pleads for him. Loud harsh negatives from the other four.
    4. ‘Scuse me, says Leporello, I’m not Giovanni, I’m Leporello.25 Magical change of key.
Hushed amazement. Leporello!
    5. ‘Big brassy fanfare. Final molto allegro.26 I don’t know what the hell’s going on says
Leporello. Nor I nor I nor I nor I nor I say the other five very loudly, very chorally, for a very
long time with Leporello pattering away below.
    An agreeable buffa aria29 from Leporello (I couldn’t help myself s’welp me God yer honour).
Most of the interest in the orchestra.
    Ottavio comforts Anna. A golden melody.31 In the middle bit he will avenge her: now he
gets as nearly fierce as the poor old thing can manage: back to the golden start: then a slightly

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ferocious end-piece. Lots of runs and sustained notes to show that whatever Ottavio couldn’t
do, he could at least sing.
    Elvira still has problems. Can’t decide whether she loves or hates the dreaded Don. Another
magnificent accompagnato followed by a quite stunning aria.37 This number has one of Mozart’s
alpha-plus tunes, long, simple at first, but later running into all manner of decorative patterns.
The short middle bit (she wants him dead) is a bit gloomy but otherwise the tone is remarkably
cheerful. Lovely writing for the woodwind, perfectly shaped and a great coda. Brilliant.

Act II Sc 3
MINUTES FROM THE START
42: Dt rider finirai**
Giovanni and Leporello encounter the speaking statue. At first he speaks to them in the middle
of their secco recitatif.42 Mozart, master of the uncosy, as always uses three trombones to give
gravitas and spookiness to supernatural speech. Then we move into a frightened scampering
duet. The two ask him to dinner. He replies with a monosyllabic ‘Yes’.

Act II Sc 4
MINUTES FROM THE START
50: Crudele? Ah no, mio bene!*
52: Non mi dir*
Anna refuses Ottavio’s proposal of marriage.50 Here we have first something between an
accompagnato and an introduction to the aria. It uses the tune of the aria but speaks in the
broken rhythms of recitatif. Good, but not as good as the great accompagnato that has gone
before. Then the long aria itself,52 slow at first (Anna’s usual downbeat mood), a faster section
with more spirit and then the best bit near the end, terrific runs and some of Mozart’s inspired
cadential writing (that is music that makes you think the end is nigh but it isn’t yet).

Act II Sc 5
MINUTES FROM THE START
56: Già la mensa*
61: L’ultima prova**
63: Che grido è questo mai?**
64: Don Gtovanni a cenar***
69: Da qual tremore**
70: Ah, dov’è il perfido?*
72: Or che tutti*
73: Io men vado*
74: Questo è il fin**
The finale opens nicely enough with five minutes of knockabout comedy56 between servant
and master. Musically the most interesting items are the snatches of tunes from current operas.
Figaro’s ‘Non piu andrai’ (surprise surprise) gets the fullest treatment.
    Elvira’s last throw.61 She prostrates herself before Giovanni but keeps her strong vocal line:
perhaps it is even more passionate than before. His eplies are brutal in meaning and brutish in
sound. Leporello chun-ters on-with his customary running commentary. Elvira screams in fear
as she leaves. The emotional temperature has shot up.

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    Now comes the hour of reckoning, perhaps Mozart’s own finest hour:
    1. Why did Elvira scream?63 Giovanni asks Leporello to find out. Leporello screams. Comes
back dithering with panic. Agitation in the orchestra too. A stone man: he walks like TA TA TA
TA (heavy strokes in unison on the strings). You’re potty says Giovanni. The Commendatore
enters.
    2. Two tremendous chords.64 The Commendatore speaks. He speaks slowly. His first ‘Don
Giovanni’ has the ring of terror. Giovanni can’t believe it: the orchestra feeds our fear: Leporello
is in a panic. The Commendatore forges ahead unstoppable favouring semitones but sometimes
taking huge octave leaps. Scooping scales in the orchestra. Important things afoot, says the
Commendatore. Leporello breaks into triplets. The orchestra starts to hammer under the
Commendatore: he asks Giovanni to dine with him. I’m not chicken says Giovanni, I’ll come.
(Now for the first time in the opera we have a frisson of admiration for him.) You’ll come? says
the Commendatore (huge downward leap twice, rather like his first ‘Don Giovanni’). Give me
your hand says the Commendatore. Shit! it’s cold says Giovanni: and now he starts to lose his
marbles. Tremendous noise throughout the orchestra. Repent! says the Commendatore. Shan’t
says Giovanni. Basses rush about. Yes. No. Battle of wills.
    3. Time’s up! says the Commendatore.69 Panic for all. Chorus of evil spirits or something
starts to hammer too. Flames. I’m going into hell shouts Giovanni (he’s quite right), some
hysterical phrases, then – Ah Ah Ah – and he’s gone. Leporello adds his own Ah! as his master
disappears.
    The post-damnation sextet. (Epilogue.)
    1. Leporello tells all. Fairly four-square stuff.70
    2. Slower section:72 Ottavio proposes once again (will he never get the message?). Anna
postpones. A lovely duet, quite a lot of canon, quite a lot of sing-together. At this point in the
opera a blessed patch of blue sky.
     3. The other four reel off their career intentions, their vocal lines still very much in character.73
    4. Fast, majestic final section.74 They moralize smugly. Sounds rather fugal but isn’t really.
Big climax for curtain fall.

NOTES
Don Giovanni     Mozart’s fourteenth opera
First night National Theatre, Prague, 29 October 1787
Reception Enthusiastic
Libretto Da Ponte
Source Contemporary one-acter by Bertati (words) and
Gazzaniga (music) but this was only the latest in a
succession of Don Giovannis. See below.

NEWS AND GOSSIP

Mozart was Prague’s golden boy. The city had gone mad over Figaro when the stuffy Viennese
had received it in a horribly condescending fashion. It had invited him on a special visit to hear
their Figaro and had then commissioned him for a new opera for the next season. Well done
Prague, say we. Mozart got da Ponte to do the libretto although he was up to his eyes writing

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two other librettos (one for Salieri) at the time. He pinched a lot from Bertati (different reports
as to how much and surely someone could get their Mus.Doc. by laying the two pieces side by
side and telling us exactly) but Bertati was only the top of an iceberg stretching back deep into
time, actually to 1630. A Spanish gent, name of Tirso, produced the founding member of the
Giovanni family. The story caught the fancy of writers in the same way as did Faust, Electra
or Candide. There were dozens of Giovannis, usually with the Stone Guest to polish him off.
Famous fellows – Molière, Goldoni – did it. Unknown fellows did it – they all did it, but da
Ponte and Mozart did it best. (But this didn’t stop Byron, Merimèe, Balzac and Bernard Shaw
from doing it later on. But not yet Harold Pinter.)
There were the usual extraordinary precautions over censorship. When he submitted the
text da Ponte left out Donna Anna’s account of her rape (and certainly her calm acceptance of
the man in her bed, even though it was Don Ottavio, seems a bit strange even today) and the
attempted rape of Zerlina. Also the quite gratuitous shouts of ‘Viva la liberta’ were apparently
popped in to please the Emperor who was fond of the idea of liberty. Mozart arrived in Prague
on 1 October with the first night set for 14 October. Even today that looks like an impossible
schedule and it was. The opening was postponed to the 29th and Mozart wrote out the overture
on the night of the 28th which was therefore performed unrehearsed and must have been a
mess. But the opera itself was an absolute wow. Not so a few months later in Vienna, where it
was anything but. Too many arias, too chaotic, too unmelodic (!), too difficult. A reaction not
comprehensible today, especially the word ‘difficult’ which meant difficult for the singers rather
than the audience. One wonders how the poor dears would have coped with Lulu, Bluebeard,
etc. Mozart shuffled the numbers around quite a lot for Vienna, adding some, deleting others.
Two important changes were the addition of Don Ottavio’s wonderful ‘Dalla sua pace’ and the
cutting out of the post-damnation sextet, though whether he did this on grounds of taste (one
hopes so) or because the opera was too long, we do not know. Anyway it was a flop and after a
dutiful number of performances in its first run (fourteen), it was never again played in Vienna
in Mozart’s lifetime. After that people messed about with it. It was played quite a lot within the
Austrian Empire in a German translation as a Singspiel (hideous thought). It reached Covent
Garden in 1817 in a version titled The Libertine and ‘arranged for the English stage’ by Bishop, a
really dim composer who had more than a dozen absolutely dire operas to his credit. Giovanni
reached Italy in 1811 and France even later. During the nineteenth century it lay pretty low
until the 1880s when at last the world began to realize that it was something pretty good. Today
everyone knows it is a masterpiece and it stands high amongst Mozart’s top four (the other
three being Figaro, Cosi and the Flute).

COMMENT
Many people claim Don Giovanni is Mozart’s best opera, even the best opera of all time. This
cannot be so. It is true that it has perhaps Mozart’s greatest operatic music but when it comes to
the matter of plot it can’t match Figaro or Cosi. All goes along nicely in Act I but in the first part
of Act II we pretty well lose the main story altogether. There is no point in Leporello dressing up
as Giovanni: it doesn’t advance the Giovanni/Elvira relationship one jot. No point in Giovanni
beating up Masetto except to liven things up with a spot of violence and to extract another
wonderful number from Zerlina. The cornering of Leporello when assumed to be Giovanni
is dead end. The truth is that Act I is one story which we pick up again in the graveyard and
which is taken to its fearful end in the last scene. The only two players that are needed for the

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main story after Act I are Giovanni and Leporello. All the others have had it: they stick around
in the same state as before, Elvira forlorn, Ottavio and Anna going on for ever about love and
vengeance, Masetto and Zerlina together again after the disgraceful happenings at the ball.
None of their stories pay off until the Epilogue. But the crafty da Ponte and the ingenious
Mozart paper over these cracks and keep us on the ball by making the incidents so diverting in
themselves and through the absolutely glorious music.
The score is pure gold, with as many or more solo winners as Figaro and Cosi, a three-star
sextet, a brilliant finale to Act I and a last scene that knocks spots off anything in opera so far.
The two act ends are also something entirely new. The finale to Act I starts with the little local
difficulty with Masetto, pretty brash stuff, goes on to the invitation to the maskers with its
whiff of ballroom music and their solemn little prayer to pull off their mission and then the
turmoil of the ballroom scene itself. As the three plots thicken – restive Masetto, about-to-
pounce Giovanni and watchful maskers – so does the texture of the dance music. The home
team dance band plug away solidly at their minuet in 3/4 time, the second comes in with a sort
of commentary in 2/4 and the third strikes up in another line of business altogether, again
in triple time. Musically you lose your bearings, it gets like a bad dream – everything’s going
haywire, but in a most elegant fashion. Zerlina’s scream wakes us out of the dream: everything
stops dead and we are back on home ground – good standard Mozart finale stuff.
In the last scene of Act II Mozart brought terror to the opera stage for the first time. There had
been lots of fear before, much of it female and tremulous, besides other popular emotions such
as sorrow, joy, rage, love filial, love amorous and love parental. Natural disasters, especially
storms, had featured often enough, but here, with the aid of trombones, semitones, octave
leaps and a deep strong bass voice, Mozart pulled off something quite new, a coup de thèâtre
that can still raise the hairs on the napes of our necks. The growing tension of the confrontation
with the Commendatore is tremendous. It is nemesis. It is awful. We are purged with terror and
a little pity too for Giovanni, for in his final hour he shows pluck.
The Epilogue was composed to meet the eighteenth-century fashion for a cheery ending to
an otherwise gloomy tale. It must be wrong to destroy the impact of the last scene by lining
up the cast and letting them rip into their wind-up sextet. If producers must play it today, it
is essential at least to allow applause to act as a sort of cordon sanitaire between the terror of
Giovanni’s final Aaah! and the chirpy account by the rest of the cast of their future plans.
One other great strength of Giovanni is the way each player is given a musical character. Also
true of the other late Mozarts, but in Giovanni better defined and more precise. Elvira is defined
in music as a strong-minded woman in torment, Anna as an even stronger-minded woman with
an animal instinct for revenge, Ottavio as a sort of neutered tomcat, a foil to Anna and pretty
useless except for his ability to produce the most golden sounds, Masetto has the music of a
hulking brute, Zerlina’s is full of guile, Leporello’s that of the standard buffa comic but with a
touch more insolence than we would expect. Which leaves the Don himself.
Millions of words have been written by clever people, including scholars, trying to pin down
the true nature of Giovanni. This is not possible, for Giovanni is no more a real man than
Tarzan, James Bond, or even the great god Zeus (who certainly shared some of his tastes).
He is a mythological beast and like the man who encountered that other mythological animal,
Thurber’s Unicorn in the Garden, if you try and explain him away in rational terms, you are
likely to end up in the funny farm. He did of course have human characteristics, quite a bit of
Douglas Fairbanks senior, something of Casanova (but better looking), a whiff of the Marquis

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de Sade, but in the end he is a manufactured man, a stereotype, Mr Supersex, who wanders
through life doing one thing only and doing it pretty often. This is not to say that Mozart and da
Ponte do not invest him with a lot of life, but even they cannot make this peripatetic bounder
add up to a complete human being. From his music we learn that he can be seductive, coarse,
arrogant and brave, but there is no musical core to Giovanni. If after the opera you were to
shout down to hell ‘Stand up the real Don Giovanni’, at least three people would rise to their
feet, not one.
The last scene gives Don Giovanni a stature. It has the power to purge us with pity and fear.
It towers above the comic finales of Figaro and Cosi and whether or not Giovanni is Mozart’s
greatest opera, it is certainly his most powerful finale. Alpha-plus.

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