OPERA The Italian Opera Company of Chicago

Ever since its Prague premiere on October 29, 1787, Mozart’s Don Giovanni has been a worldwide favorite of opera-goers. Indeed, this work can be thought of as the Hamlet of opera because more has been written about it than any other single opera. Writers from such diverse fields as theology, sociology, philosophy, political science, psychiatry and psychology have used Don Giovanni to illustrate various points about their respective disciplines, usually focusing their ideas on the nature of the title character or the plot of the opera. Much of the musical criticism and analysis is also generated by the dramatic element of the work since there has consistently been a problem in deciding whether Don Giovanni is a tragic opera with comic features or a comic opera with tragic overtones.

Described as “un dramma giocoso” by Mozart and his able librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, Don Giovanni, with its tragic/comic form, may spring from a well established theatrical tradition that featured dark tragedies with happy endings or works that mixed serious and whimsical moments. It was quite common for playwrights like Moliere, Goldoni and Beaumarchais to depict the humorless aristocrats usually found in opera seria interacting with the stock lower class characters of opera buffa. In Le nozze di Figaro, for example, we have a mix of serious and comic characters and the overall feeling of the work is that of a romantic comedy of the type that may be compared to a Frank Capra film. But Don Giovanni is different in that the tragic and comic elements are so extreme, that the work defies a simple description and hence the problem with the musical analysis. The major question is how could Mozart create perfectly appropriate music for such extremes and situate them next to each other or even blend them together? There really is no satisfactory answer to this question other than stating the obvious, that Mozart was a supreme musical genius, a trait that will always remain shrouded in mystery. We can, however, see what Mozart did in this music and thereby make clearer why the tragic and comic in Don Giovanni play so well together.

Putting aside the sheer excellence of Mozart’s composition and using some prominent examples, it is fairly easy to identify the parts that are clearly either tragic or comic. The slow but powerful introduction of the overture, the first thing that we hear, is decidedly tragic, with the fortissimo D-minor tonic and dominant chords with the bass pitches sustaining after the treble instruments drop out. After some ominous chromatically-colored scale runs punctuated by more ringing chords and an extended dominant cadence, comes the “comic” fast section in D-major. With this overture, the contrasting moods are clearly established. In many of the opera’s arias and ensembles the serious characters sing serious music. Donna Elvira sings a number of arias that project an elegance befitting a noblewoman like, “Ah! Chi mi dice mai?,” “Ah! Fuggi il traditor!” and “Mi tradì quell’alma ingrata.” Likewise the haunted Donna Anna is given exactly the kind of numbers one would expect for a lady whose father has been murdered and who cannot find the solace of love until she has been avenged. Her serious pieces include the “revenge” duet, “Fuggi crudele, fuggi!,” “Or sai, chi l’onore rapire a me volse” and “Non mi dir.” Don Ottavio, much maligned by the critics, nevertheless has two beautiful aristocratic arias, “Dalla sua pace” and “Il mio tesoro” (the first, easier to sing, was composed for the Vienna premiere because Mozart deemed the Prague aria too difficult for the tenor at hand. Both are so beautiful, that they have both been included in performances of Don Giovanni for many years).

Contrarily, the commoners of Don Giovanni often sing expectedly comic arias with their characteristic simple bouncing rhythms and staccato declamations with most individual syllables receiving but one note. Along these lines, consider Leporello’s “Notte e giorno faticar,” Masetto’s “Ho capito,” and Zerlina’s “Batti, batti, o bel Masetto.” So far we have identified numbers that are quite easy to categorize as being either serious or comical. But in further examination the situation begins to become murky.

The music of Don Giovanni, who rarely utters any humorous words, tends often to have a “comic” feel, perhaps because he is so often interacting with Leporello. The Commendatore, of course, sings musical passages that are always lofty, even though he does not really have any extended solos. In fact, in the numbers that include the Commendatore, we can perceive that the delineation between the tragic and comic is quite blurred. In the first of two remarkable three-bass trios, Don Giovanni and the Commendatore each express very sober sentiments as they sing ultra legato lines describing a sudden and painful death, “affanoso e agonizante già” and “sento l’anima partir.” At the same time, Leporello, in a staccato rhythm, bewails his unwitting participation, “Io non sò che far.” Even in a single number, Leporello, the “bridge” between the Don and the others, sings both seriously and comically. In the both parts of Leporello’s “Madamina,” Mozart masterfully and naturally inserts a contradictory style to the main body of the piece. In the aria’s first part, wherein the servant gleefully enumerates his master’s sexual conquests, the music is dominated by a light-hearted and bubbling exuberance. But at the culmination of each stanza the music waxes majestic, befitting a more serious character, with “Ma, in Ispagna son già mille e tre.” The music of the second part of the aria is very lyrical and high blown, except for the climactic “La piccina,” which quickly lapses into a comic vein. We find this same kind of subtle shifting from the serious to the whimsical, the sacred to the profane, or the different sentiments being voiced simultaneously, in numerous places throughout the opera. This is especially true of the ensembles that feature both the aristocrats and commoners.

We find this same kind of contradiction in the orchestral score. The serious or tragic numbers are usually preceded by lush recitativo accompagnato (recitative with orchestra accompaniment), of which Mozart was a master. The melodic vocal lines of the arias are generally smooth and languorous in keeping with the stately meters of the poetry. In these passages the orchestra, although often an independent voice (none of Mozart’s rival composers could come close to his expertise here), is generally a legato supporter of the solo. The novel use of trombones that doubles and harmonizes with the ghost of the Commendatore, reaches a peak of tragic grandeur that is rarely, if ever, achieved in any music. In the obviously buffa parts, like the growling bass line and responsive violin patter of the first part of “Madamina,” the accompaniment tends to chatter joyfully along with the comedians. In the passages of mixed sentiments, the score turns on a dime, effectively reinforcing the contrary moods.

In the end, it is Mozart’s music that captures the full spectrum of emotions that are displayed so vividly in Don Giovanni. The varying feelings evoked by the score, which is really the hallmark of this opera, cannot be perceived from the printed page of the libretto. Nor does simple analysis alone of the music yield a solution to the problems posed by the entirety of the opera. While it is a very worthwhile exercise to probe and discuss the seemingly countless dramatic, philosophical and musical aspects of this opera, we ultimately must be content with the knowledge that Mozart was endowed with an insight that can’t really be explained. Don Giovanni is one of those artistic masterpieces that just fills us with both wonder and pleasure, and that’s good enough to last the ages.