Introduction: A Dark Comedy
If you've ever seen movies like Fargo or O Brother, Where Art Thou?, you'll have an idea what a dark comedy is. We call a movie a dark comedy when it deals with tragic themes, like murder or crime, in a surprisingly funny way. Mozart's opera Don Giovanni is unusual because it too is something of a dark comedy. Most operas in Mozart's time were purely comic or tragic, but Don Giovanni is a hilarious show that delves into darkness, complete with seduction, murder, and a statue from beyond the grave.
Mozart and the Enlightenment
Don Giovanni was composed in 1787 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a composer from music's Classical period who lived from 1756 to 1791. Classical is a label for music from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period roughly corresponding to a philosophical movement called the Enlightenment. During the Enlightenment, European thinkers celebrated the idea of social justice and the value of common people, as opposed to the powerful aristocrats who ruled the roost at the time.
Mozart came from a working-class background. In fact, he earned his living as a musician from the tender age of six. Like many Classical composers, Mozart wrote a lot of music designed for middle-class audiences, drawing on ideas from the Enlightenment. His compositions include symphonies, piano works, and many other pieces, as well as operas like Don Giovanni, one of several that he wrote to words by Italian author Lorenzo da Ponte.
Don Giovanni: Concept and Characters
Don Giovanni is an example of opera buffa, or comic opera, a genre that was popular during the Enlightenment. Middle-class audiences loved opera buffa, because it was entertaining, full of slapstick humor, and often poked fun at the aristocracy.
Don Giovanni retells the dubious adventures of legendary nobleman Don Giovanni, who travels throughout Spain seducing countless women. His wealth and power protect him from facing the consequences of his deeds, until one day he goes too far, committing a murder which eventually leads to his downfall.
There are eight main characters in Don Giovanni. Note that 'Don' and 'Donna' are not names, but aristocratic titles corresponding to 'Lord' and 'Lady'. Imagine a risqué Spanish version of Downton Abbey and you'll have the right idea.
- Don Giovanni is a powerful young nobleman, and a sociopathic womanizer.
- Leporello is the Don's sarcastic servant, a sidekick who is both entertained and troubled by his boss's philandering.
- Donna Anna is an aristocratic lady, one of Don Giovanni's conquests.
- Don Ottavio is Donna Anna's somewhat wimpy fiancé.
- The Commandant is Donna Anna's father, an elderly military officer.
- Donna Elvira is one of Don Giovanni's bitter ex-girlfriends.
- Zerlina is a beautiful, sassy peasant girl.
- Masetto is Zerlina's passionate but bumbling fiancé.
Synopsis of Don Giovanni
Mozart gives us some dark foreshadowing before the curtain rises. The orchestra plays two loud, terrifying chords, followed by quiet, creepy music that creates a tense atmosphere. This music will return at a climactic moment in the opera. Though cheerful music follows, the opening warns that this comic opera has tragic undertones.
In Act One, Leporello is waiting outside Donna Anna's house when a masked man rushes out, pursued by Anna. When she screams for help, her father the Commandant appears, but the masked man kills him in a saber duel. The audience learns that the masked man is Don Giovanni because he runs away with Leporello, but Anna remains unaware of her seducer's identity.
The next day, Leporello and the Don run into the heartbroken Donna Elvira. In a darkly funny number, Leporello cynically lists the Don's hundreds of ex-girlfriends, and advises Elvira to get over him. Later, Don Giovanni shows up at the wedding of Zerlina and Masetto. The Don hits on Zerlina while Leporello drags the furious Masetto offstage. In a famous duet, the Don uses his sweetest melodies to tempt Zerlina, while she wonders if he is trustworthy. Elvira crashes in, screaming that Don Giovanni is a traitor, and Zerlina escapes.
With Elvira's help, Anna and Ottavio discover that their acquaintance, the charming aristocrat Don Giovanni, is none other than the masked man who murdered the Commandant. During a party, things begin to turn sour for the Don. Zerlina, who is back with Masetto, rejects the Don's advances, and Elvira, Anna and Ottavio dramatically accuse the Don of murder in front of his guests.
The second act of Don Giovanni opens with Leporello disguised as his boss, on a date with poor Donna Elvira, while the real Don Giovanni serenades Elvira's maid. Masetto leads a mob of peasants to attack Don Giovanni, but the Don escapes and Masetto manages to get beaten up instead. Later, Masetto, Zerlina, Ottavio, Anna, and Elvira all attempt to gang up on Don Giovanni, but as it turns out, they've only cornered a terrified Leporello, who is still disguised as his master. Anna demands that Ottavio kill Don Giovanni, but he never actually gets around to it.
At this point, Don Giovanni feels invincible. In a graveyard, he encounters a statue of the dead Commandant. When the statue unaccountably begins to talk, Don Giovanni is unfazed, and invites the statue to dinner. Later, Don Giovanni is dining in his mansion, and we suddenly hear the dark, terrifying chords from the very beginning of the opera. The statue of the dead Commandant walks into the room, and instructs the Don to repent or else. Don Giovanni is defiant to the end, even as the stage erupts in flames and he is dragged down to the underworld. In the finale, the surviving characters react to the Don's dramatic fate.
Lesson Summary
Don Giovanni is an opera buffa from the Classical period, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In a darkly humorous tone, the opera tells the story of philandering nobleman Don Giovanni, who exploits his power to seduce and kill, until he is finally punished by one of his own victims. Don Giovanni shows the influence of the Enlightenment by depicting the downfall of its aristocratic title character.
