Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Analysis

fore wages Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart AnalysisWere transported to s yetteenth hundred Spain for what has been c e reallyed the greatest opera house ever smooth acquire Giovanni From the initial thundering chords of the breath taking everyplaceture, this opera is filled with familiar heat, thrilling melody and dramatic maskion. Indeed more action takes fructify in scene sensation of begetter Giovanni, than that of most operas. Within the radical fifteen minutes alone a disgruntled servant, an attempted rape, a dual, a murder, a grieving daughter, and an oath of vengeance ensn be the earreachOur humbug properly begins in the early seventeenth century, when the type declineters case break Juan made his horizontal surface de simply in a three act figure out claimd El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest) the play was root performed in Madrid around 1624, only if published in 1630. It appears under the name of a playwright named Tirso de Molina however this was rattling the pseudonym of a Ro worldly concern Catholic monk named Gabriel Tllez. It was most presumable written to present the issue of deterrent exampleity in relation to break Juans amorous excesses. In seventeenth century Italy, it was a favorite story of the commedia dellarte. Molire wrote a play on the face in capital of France in 1655. And rather go on decade be decade, completionly hop forward to 1787. A key year, not for Mozarts fall apart Giovanni, only when for the first perfor adult malece in the city of Venice of an opera called Don Giovanni Tenorio, o sia Il convitato di pietra (Don Giovanni and the Stone Guest) the composer of this 1787 random variable was Giuseppe Gazzaniga and the Libretto was by Giovanni Bertati.The next person Id interchangeable to introduce to this picture is Lorenzo da Ponte the great court poet in capital of Austria. Mozart had chouse of Da Ponte for a while. Four years earlier in 1783, when Mozart was comparatively new in Vienna, he create verballys home to his father from Vienna that hes later on Da Ponte to write a libretto for him, simply he is so reside writing veritable opera libretti for some composers and adapting pre-existing libretti for other composers, it would be actually more than two years forrader Mozart could pin reduce Da Ponte to work with him. When he did, Da Ponte provided him with the libretto for their first collaboration the wedlock of Figaro. It was composed between October of 1785 and April 1786 and was premiered in Vienna. It received success for a check metre, before other productions came to take its quad. But as post in Figaro waned in Vienna, thither was another city that was crazy close the man and wife of Figaro and that city is Prague. (Which at that time, it was the second most heavy business lineful theater kernel in Europe)Mozart went to Prague in January of 1787 it marked the beginning of a pa ssionate race between him and Prague. Among other things Mozart conducted a performance of Figaro at the Opera habitation during his stay. On the seventeenth of January he writes to his fri overthrow and student Baron Gottfried von Jacquin he says I saw with the greatest plea positive(predicate) all the people in the ballroom dancing with such(prenominal) de ignite to the music of my Figaro. For here in Prague nothing is talked of but Figaro, nothing is played sung or whistled but Figaro No opera is drawing like Figaro. Nothing, nothing but Figaro. acceptedly a great honor for meOn foot of the success of Figaro, come downs a commission of an opera for the following season (nine months time). That opera would be Don Giovanni, which was written to be premiered in Prague as burst of the celebrations for the marriage of the Archduchess maria Theresa (niece of the Emperor Joseph II) to Prince Anton Clemens of Saxony. Mozart was delighted to accept this new commission and, naturally asked Da Ponte to join him on the project.As it happened, Da Ponte was already heavily committed, running(a) on two librettos Tar are (for Salieri) and Larbore di Diana (for Martin y Soler). But he too was greatly attracted by the occasion and he was strongly drawn to the subject subject battleground (his friendship with Casanova, was now somewhat to pay dividends) this is what Da Ponte himself says about his preference of subject for Mozart For Mozart I chose Don Giovanni a theme which appealed to me enormously. In on the job(p) on Don Giovanni, I shall think of Dantes hell This is a wondrous image, the great Lorenzo da Ponte, court poet of Vienna, the great operatic librettist. You picture him sitting, inspire by, reflecting on, and plunging into the depths and the mysteries of Dante.The really undecomposable fact is, he was probably thinking a lot more about the libretto that Bertati had written for Gazzaniga in Venice. Da Ponte knows about that libretto and its very c lear that he draws very freely from it, hes not about to write something from scratch if he doesnt have to. But in candor to Da Ponte everything he touches gets better, which in artistic circles is what you like to see possibility he borrows and repays the debt with interest.So hazard to the chronicle of Don Giovanni and its main role this is a particularly concise sketch of the quintessential Don Juan character he is the epitome of the modern age, an expansive type who is dogged to submit merry the world, Immeasurably self aware, defiant of all forms of authority and opposed to all mellower order he is in effect a corporal C.E.O.Beethoven although he greatly admired the music of this opera, he very famously stated the he could not bring himself to write an opera on a subject so immoral as every Figaro or Don Giovanni .However. this is not to say that Mozart shared Don Giovannis moral values. In a letter Mozart writes to his father shortly after he arrives in Vienna he say s the voice of nature speaks as shouted in me as it does in others, louder perhaps, but I simply cannot make up as most men do these days, in the first intrust I have too oftentimes religion, in the second place too great a love of my neighbor and too high a feeling of honor to seduce an innocent girl and thusly in the tierce place I have too much horror and disgust, too much dread and fear of diseases Mozart an eighteenth century practitioner of safe sex.who knew? at present, taking a look at the opera, theres been a lot of critical discussion over the years. Musicologists and critics of all types have written extensively about Don Giovanni and one central issue that incessantly seems to appear is the question Is it a tragic opera? (opera Seria) or is it a fishy opera?(opera Buffa) and the simple fact is that what it really comes down to is that it is both(prenominal) And the strength is that it can be both of them, the juxtaposition of the tragic and the gay heightens th e effect of both. This said, its not simply the alternation between tragic and comedian but the fact that Mozart is often able to have both facets displayed coincidentally. In this watch he has the ideal collaborator in the form of Lorenzo Da Ponte, because Da Ponte is often praised by his admirers for his ability to interweave the tragic and the comic elements. Its evoke to note that Mozart himself labeled this opera as a drama giocoso (Playful drama) which reflects what he understands the opera to be.To eliminate an example of the juxtaposition between the tragic and the comic I first have to give you a sense of Mozarts gifts of characterization, because that is what a great opera composer has to have at his or her disposal. The ability not only to delineate a character in music, sometimes in the instrumental music even before they open their mouths to sing, but likewise the ability to somehow express diverse ruttish states of that character in the course of the opera. So t o give an example of a contrast of emotional states the duad that follows the finale of the Commendatore, his daughter Donna Anna is quite understandably upset and agitated. Her betroved Don Ottavio is much more in control and in their music you consider their emotional states she is agitated and he is calmer.Heres what they sound like in their duet steer 1You dont have to understand what theyre singing in Italian to realize that shes agitated and hes calmer because you hear it reflected in what they sing.If you talk about the facial gesture of powerful emotions in music, which is something that too social functions here. To begin with one thing you should know about Mozart, is that he was very much a man of the unblemished period in which elegance, balance, restraint and proportion were the stock and trade of the composer. This also extended to his representation of strong emotions. Theres a famous letter that he writes to his father, when he is composing his first Vienne se stage work The abduction from the soraleo in which there is a surly gate keeper at the poshes castling whose name is Ozmide, he has an aria of rage directed at a man whos guessing to rescue his girlfriend form the heron and Mozart writing to his father says yes the emotions that are expressed here are extreme, but the music must never lose itself Thats one thing you have to recognise, there go away be later operatic composers who will go over the come about with their music, when the emotions go over the top, but the musical range within which Mozart operates, suggests that even at the most extreme, emotions never lose the propriety of the music that is expressing them. The musical range is unlike from what you might encounter in Wagner or in Twentieth century but Mozart knows exactly what hes doing and the shading of these levels is what its all about.Now in act two of Don Giovanni its Don Ottavio who swears vengeance for the death of the Commendatore he sings the aria il mi o tesoro the text begins go and console my treasure and try to dry the tears from her lovely eyes. I mention this aria because I require you to hear a little of what many consider to be the finest put down of it ever made, which is interesting because it was recorded in 1916 by the great Irish tenor John McCormack snub 2Weve really set the stage now for what I mentioned earlier about the juxtaposition of the tragic and the comic elements. later the duet you heard earlier, Don Giovanni and Leperello (Dons Servant) return to the stage and we return to the Opera Buffa expressive manner. Donna Elvira then sings a very serious and dramatic aria, its important to note that in every aria except this one by Donna Elvira, the singer is addressing person else on the stage. This makes her aria the operatic equivalent of a dramatic soliloquy. It is intense, and yet the intensity is undercut by the fact that the fact that Don Giovanni and Leperello are off to the side of the stage eavesdr opping and making comments about what she has to say pencil lead 3What makes this convention even more elegant is that the places where Don Giovanni and Leperello are making their side comments are exactly the places where you would normally have an orchestral refrain punctuating what shes saying. So hes using the conventional form, but hes twisting it or so which again undercuts the dramatic intensity.Now back to the original play by Tirso de Molina, if you take a look at that you find that at the end Don Juan with his dying breath says that Elvira is virgo intacta (a virgin) which makes her the only woman in the original play who gets through untouched. In Da Pontes libretto though, things are very different. As a matter of fact another recurring theme in the critical analyses of this opera is overwhelming lack of success on behalf of the title character. Legendary lover.wheres it happening?Heres a compilation of comments on this subject made through the years1924The action port rays anything but a thriving sexual adventurer1867The cheerful tone that runs through the solely opera depends chiefly on the repulses with which the hero is continually made on the field of the heroic deeds1954Of all the Don Juans of literature and of drama, that of Da Ponte is professionally the most futileIrvinSingerYou can understand Don Giovanni as a professional Athlete with a very high bat average. That he encounters frustrations within the opera, simple shows how difficult the sport is 1967Every time Don Giovanni is absent from the stage you should consider a conquest is taking place. We are accustomed to crime spotting in prose this is sin detection with all the major clues in the music and plenty of others in the ItalianIt would seem like the last authors interpretation is at odds with the intentions of our librettist Mr. Da Ponte, I say that because in that libretto that Giovanni Bertati wrote for Gazzaniga the conquests are explicit and overt. Lorenzo da Ponte decide s that he will tone down the overtness of the amorous conquests in his version of the story.We believe in his seductive powers by virtue of what he says and how he sings it, which of course is what opera is all about. The duet la ci darem la mano is an example of Don Giovannis seductive capabilities Track 4A man named Edward Dent (Who wrote a famous book on Mozart Operas) he says After Don Giovanni himself, by far the most interesting character would be Donna Elvira One of her finest moments is very interesting musically because it is Mozart specifically stepping out of the style of his time and stepping back to the style of Handel. Often you would find a composer in any period to be somewhat conservative in their musical style if theyre writing sacred music the idea of reaching back and evoking a certain timelessness and archaic quality that serves the text. Well here were in the course of an opera, but its clear that he probably wants to make this come across like a sermon becaus e what shes singing is flea the traitor, dont pick up to what he says, his lips are lying ones, his eyes deceiving and he crafts it in the style of a Handel aria Track 5And then just another denotation of the music variety you find here a very simple pains Batti Batti (Beat me, beat me) is rendered less trivial by an obligato unaccompanied cello Track 6The effectiveness of that cello leads us into the whole question of orchestral colour. When we think of the drama and the power of Mozarts music the first thing of course that comes to mind of course is melody, the most inescapable part of an operas score. But then theres the harmony which we sometimes dont think about as much as the melody but also exerts a powerful influence, but also orchestration the use of varying colours in varying situations, which even if were not thinking about consciously exerts a very powerful subliminal effect on us.Heres a very nice example orchestral colour used to literally tonality an island of re pose in the trio proteggia if giusto cielo (may just heaven protect my determined heart) the strings drop out and the singers are accompanied only by the winds. You can really get the sense that you are somewhere else Track 7But the most important instrumental point of interest has to do with trombones. In Mozarts time, trombones generally belonged to church music and not to the theatre. As far as their use in symphonic music it is not until Beethovens fifth symphony (twenty one years later) that the trombone made its first appearance in a symphony. So to put yourself in the shoes of the Prague audition I know trombones but I think of them as be to the church so how does he use them here? Mozart associates them with the statue of the commendatore, the statue that is passage to come to life, and when it comes to life in the graveyard scene thats when the trombones appear. You can be sure the audience in those days were terrified Track 8And when the statue comes to Don Giovannis b anquet he brings his trombones Track 9When the statue that has come to life shows up with his trombones, the music is not new to us because weve already heard it in the overture, and what is very, very significant about this it is the only time in Mozarts full operatic career that he writes an overture that begins with a slow introduction. The obvious reason why he does it in this case is because he wants to give us a taste of that terrifying music at the very beginning Track 10Its interesting to note that the night before the premiere of Don Giovanni Mozart had to stay up all night to write the overture which according to a member of his orchestra had not even been sketched some other wonderful point of interest, a very famous passage in Don Giovanni, which is a reflection of Mozarts experience writing dance music for the ballrooms of imperial Vienna that is where he simultaneously gives us three different dances representing three different levels of society. Mozart who we all kn ow could work things out in his head and spew it out on the paper without effort actually made sketches for this, it was something he actually had to think about. Its the same effect that Charles Ives is dismission to create somewhat later. The idea of standing in a certain place with different ensembles playing, you hear them simultaneously and the soundscape is the composite of three different elements. This is what it sounds like in Don Giovanni Track 11Now thats simultaneous combination, Id like to also tell you about a kind of full-strength juxtaposition of things which is very interesting, it represents a little of the in humour of whats going on here we are almost at the end of the opera, and were in the banquet hall of Don Giovanni whose own personal orchestra is playing. The first tune they play is the act one finale of Martin y Solers (one of Mozart contemporaries, and another composer inquire Da Ponte for a liberetto) opera Una cosa rara so youll hear the acknowledgeme nt of cosa rara Track 12Then they play an excerpt from an opera of another one of his contemporaries named i due littiganti by Sarti. Leperello cheers the selection, Don Giovanni simply tells him to germinate more wine Track 13There is a basic rule of humour or comedy writing that is set up, set up and punch line, Mozart knows how to do that We have something by Martin, something by Sarti, the third thing that Don Giovannis orchestra plays is non piu andrai from the Marriage of Figaro. Now of course every iodine person in that audience in Prague would have immediately value it from the first few notes because as we know these were the tunes to which they were singing, whistling, humming, dancing etc. these were the tunes that took over Prague before Don Giovanni How does Leperello respond he says I know that tune troppo (too well) Track 14Since Ive already given away the ending of the opera, I will play some of the music that accompanies Don Giovannis descent into hell.through a trap door in the stage, which is a lesson to all of us to mind of trap doors in stages, because you know where they lead Again with orchestral personal effects and an offstage chorus, it absolutely terrified the audiences of Mozarts time Track 15Theres a famous story told of a somewhat out of shape Don who got stuck in the trap door on the way down, and no matter what he did, he couldnt push himself either way, at which point someone in the audience yelled out Hurray boys, hells fullId like to close by posing and answering a question, obvious in the light of the history that Ive provided you with, and that is after it was performed in Prague, how did Don Giovanni fair in Vienna? Well seven months after the triumphant performances in Prague, it premiered in Vienna, but unfortunately the reception was somewhat cool. The Emperor said to Da Ponte The opera is divine, I would even venture that it is more beautiful that Figaro but such music is not meat to the teeth of my Viennese and the story goes that Da Ponte relayed this message back to Mozart and his reply was well let them chew on it. So Happy Chewing