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DON GIOVANNI
DON GIOVANNI
The Seduction Scene
Donna Anna:   Non sperar, se non m'uccidi,
ch'io ti lasci fuggir mai.

Don Giovanni:   Donna folle! indarno gridi;
chi son io tu non saprai.

Leporello:  (Che tumulto!... O ciel; che gridi!
Il padron in nuovi guai...)

 

  Unless you kill me, you need not hope
  I'll ever let you escape.

  Crazy woman! you cry out in vain;
  who I am you shall not know.

  (What a din!... Heavens, what an uproar!
  Master's in trouble again!...)

 

 

 

The Banquet Scene - Leporello wants to eat, too.

 

 

 

The Catalog Aria: Donna Elvira with Leporello
"Madamina, il catalogo č questo
delle belle che amň il padron mio:
...
In Italia seicento e quaranta,
in Almagna duecento e trentuna,
cento in Francia, in Turchia novantuna,
ma in Ispagna son giŕ mille e tre."

- Leporello
"The Catalog Aria"

 

 

Donna Anna Don Ottavio
Zerlina and Masetto Masetto with Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni and Zerlina Donna Elvira

 

 

 

 
"the deceiv'r punish'd"

 
Don Giovanni, feasting in the final scene The Stone Guest
 

"Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven,
That time may cease and midnight never come;
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!
. . .
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The Devil will come, and Faustus must be damned."

- Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe

 

 

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CAPTIONS
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Donna Anna resists the advances of Don Giovanni. The degree of Anna's "resistance" is subject to debate... and interpretation. Much has been made of the fact that the great seducer, Don Juan, is unable to make a single conquest during the opera, always interrupted in one way or another - no exception in this opening scene. But is Donna Anna actually attracted to him? is this an adventure she longs for? does she truly wish to marry her fiancé, Don Ottavio, sometimes portrayed as much older than she? and how, in this very brief encounter, does she gain enough knowledge of her masked intruder to later recognize him?

The way in which the director and the actors answer these (and more!) of the Donna Anna questions helps determine whether any particular production is played more for the comedy or the drama.
[soprano Deborah Riedel with bass Ferruccio Furlanetto]
second row
Don Giovanni at the banquet in the penultimate scene. His servant, Leporello - forced to watch while Giovanni feasts and praises the excellence of his cook and the glory of the wine - takes the opportunity to sneak a bite. But he promptly gets caught and has to sing with his mouth full... another example of librettist DaPonte's brilliant juxtaposition of moments of hilarity in this, the darkest of scenes in the opera.
[bass Ferruccio Furlanetto and bass-baritone Reinhard Dorn]
third row
Donna Elvira listens first in disbelif, then dismay as Leporello proudly lists his master's conquests in The Catalog Aria.
[soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot and bass-baritone Reinhard Dorn]

"Little lady, this is the list
of the beauties my master has loved:
. . .
In Italy six hundred and forty,
in Germany two hundred and thirty-one,
a hundred in France, ninety-one in Turkey,
but already in Spain, a thousand and three."

block - top left
Donna Anna discovers that her father is dead, killed in a duel with Don Giovanni. [soprano Deborah Riedel]
block - top right
Don Ottavio vows to stand by his fiancée, Donna Anna.
[tenor Gregory Kunde]
block - middle left
Zerlina and Masetto together, as she comforts him in the aria "Vedrai, carino" after he's been beaten up by Giovanni. [mezzo-soprano Eirian James with baritone Michael Chioldi] 		block - middle right
Masetto decides to punish Giovanni, and enlists the aid of Leporello... or the man he thinks is Leporello but is really Don Giovanni in disguise. [baritone Michael Chioldi and bass Ferruccio Furlanetto]
block - bottom left
Don Giovanni entices the peasant girl, Zerlina, to abandon her wedding celebration and come away with him in the deliciously seductive duet, "La ci darem la mano."
[bass Ferruccio Furlanetto]		 block - bottom right
Donna Elvira longs for Giovanni ("Ah! taci, ingiusto core") though she knows he will only betray her again. Her music is some of the most beautiful in the opera.
[soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot]
Giovanni 1
bottom
Don Giovanni, unrepentant to the end, as the Stone Guest - the Statue of the Commendatore - with an icy death grip, sends Giovanni to his damnedly deserved reward, to suffer the eternal torments of hell. [basses Ferruccio Furlanetto and Louis Lebherz]
Giovanni 2
"The only thing thing at the end makes Giovanni become more sympathetic to an audience is the fact that he is coherent to his way of living, up to the death. Until the very last moment he doesn't want any compromise - his life is that way, and it should be that way."    - Ferruccio Furlanetto
 
 

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BEHIND THE SCENES
TRADING PLACES
In Mozart's artistic relationship with his librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, he explored many thematic layers in their three operas. The idea of disguise - of pretending to be someone else - is prominently featured in all of them.

In the original Beaumarchais play adapted by da Ponte for Le Nozze di Figaro, there's a monologue that never made it into the opera. Figaro, a writer, sees himself as a "pleasure-addicted young man who savours delights, who will engage in any occupation in order to survive, one time playing the lord, another time the servant...".

Master and Servant onstage - Leporello and Don Giovanni
But if Figaro were to change roles, would he be a better master? Onstage in the opera, the two singers frequently alternate as Figaro and the Count. And in Don Giovanni, the actual assumption of the other's role occupies much of Act II... but Leporello longs to be the master, and the idea is there from the beginning:
 
Notte e giorno faticar,
Per chi nulla sa gradir,
Piova e vento sopportar,
Mangiar male e mal dormir.
Voglio far il gentiluomo
E non voglio piu' servir...		 Day and night slaving away,
For someone who is never satisfied,
Rain and wind to put up with,
Eating badly and sleeping badly.
I want to be a gentleman
And I don't want to be a servant anymore...

Friends offstage - Reinhard Dorn and Ferruccio Furlanetto They trade hats and cloaks in a great comic scene - Leporello serenading Donna Elvira, with Giovanni, Cyrano-like, prompting him. Singers often joke around with imitations of others, and here, Leporello generally imitates/parodies the other singer's voice. Giovanni, in his turn, gets to copy and exaggerate the walk or stance or mannerisms of Leporello in his encounter with Masetto.

Most basses who sing Giovanni also portrayed Leporello at one time in their careers. Ferruccio Furlanetto has, but he's also one of the few who has alternated the two roles, as in Figaro. His Giovanni is smoldering, dangerous, but he's a gifted comic actor, too, and his Leporello is quite wonderful. It's interesting to see the evolution of that character, as he appears in four filmed versions of Don Giovanni - always as the servant.

The two singer/actors here have both played these roles before, and have worked with each other in other productions of Don Giovanni. That helps their communication in the rehearsal hall, and the fact they get along extremely well is a nice bonus.
 
"With Ferruccio, it happens that we just catch each other's eye, a little twinkle, and we just do something. Don Giovanni and Leporello have to understand each other; otherwise the piece doesn't work - it just doesn't work."      - Reinhard Dorn
 

 
DON GIOVANNI ON DVD
order the Salzburg DON GIOVANNI
This production by Michael Hampe (stage director and - with Mauro Pagano - scenic designer) is available on DVD in two versions: the first from the 1987 Salzburg Festival conducted by Herbert von Karajan; and the second, from the Opernhaus Köln in 1991, conducted by James Conlon.

The sets are very similar, as is most of the major blocking - but the costumes have been improved significantly, and there are a hundred added details in the acting in the Köln version, all typical of Dr Hampe's

darkly intellectual style married to his keen musical instinct. Karajan's conducting is a known quantity - stately and impressive, while Conlon is rather driven.

The cast is different in each, except Ferruccio Furlanetto in both performances as Leporello - and it's intriguing to see his basic characterization in place in Salzburg (his debut in the role), then with layers and layers added to make Leporello more human, less a cariacture than most. The two "Donnas" in Salzburg are very fine, though the overall edge probably goes to the Köln women. Far better in the Köln production are Zerlina and Masetto (Reinhard Dorn); Don Ottavio looks good but vocally is in over his head, especially compared to the Salzburg Ottavio.

But it's no contest with Don Giovanni - in Salzburg, Ramey is the Don and if you're a fan, then you'll enjoy his somewhat jolly performance; but in Köln, Thomas Allen is just about as definitive as you get. He plays to a darker, tormented view of Giovanni, adding subtle punctuation to the musical line with a glare, a snarl, a dismissive movement of his hand. He moves like a dancer and there's plenty of seductive charm (Lŕ ci darem la mano is unnervingly intimate, a realistic power play). The chemistry between Furlanetto and Allen is sparkling, and watching two superb actors play off each other is a treat.		 order the Köln DON GIOVANNI
 
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San Diego Opera presents
DON GIOVANNI  by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
April 2000
Conductor Leopold Hager
Director / Set Designer Michael Hampe
Costume Designer Carlo Diappi
xx
Don Giovanni Ferruccio Furlanetto
Leporello Reinhard Dorn
Don Ottavio Gregory Kunde
Donna Anna Deborah Riedel
Donna Elvira Jennifer Casey Cabot
Zerlina Eirian James
Masetto Michael Chioldi
the Commendatore Louis Lebherz

 

 

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