Metropolitan Opera Broadcast: Don Giovanni 

 

THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance) Leporello     bass-baritone, BRYN TERFEL Donna Anna     soprano, MARINA REBEKA Don Giovanni     baritone, GERALD FINLEY Commendatore     bass, JAMES MORRIS Don Ottavio     ten., MATTHEW POLENZANI Donna Elvira     soprano, ELLIE DEHN Zerlina     mezzo, ISABEL LEONARD Masetto     bass-baritone, SHENYANG Conducted by ANDREW DAVIS The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra The Metropolitan Opera Chorus Production: Michael Grandage Set and costume designer: Christopher Oram Lighting designer: Paule Constable Choreographer: Ben Wright Chorus master: Donald Palumbo Musical preparation: Dennis Giauque,      Donna Racik, Joseph Colaneri,      Howard Watkins Assistant stage directors: Gregory Anthony      Fortner, Sarah Ina Meyers, Louisa Muller Prompter: Donna Racik Stage band conductor: Jeffrey Goldberg Fight director: Nigel Poulton Harpsichord continuo: Howard Watkins Italian coach: Hemdi Kfir Production a gift of the Richard and Susan      Braddock Family Foundation,      and Sarah and Howard Solomon Additional funding from      Jane and Jerry del Missier, and      Mr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Zilkha

THE SCENES    Timings (ET)     (Seville, 17th c.)    ACT I   12:00–1:33      Sc. 1 Commendatore's palace        Sc. 2 A street        Sc. 3 A wooded glade, near Don Giovanni's palace        Sc. 4 Outside the Don's palace        Sc. 5 Don Giovanni's palace   ACT II   2:10–3:37      Sc. 1 A street        Sc. 2 Commendatore's palace        Sc. 3 A cemetery        Sc. 4 Another part of the Commendatore's palace        Sc. 5 Don Giovanni's palace     Host: Margaret Juntwait Commentator: Ira Siff Music producer: Jay David Saks Producers: Mary Jo Heath, Ellen Keel,     William Berger Executive producers: Mia Bongiovanni,      Elena Park For more information on the broadcasts,      please visit www.operainfo.org. Send quiz questions to:      Metropolitan Opera Quiz      Metropolitan Opera      30 Lincoln Center      New York, NY 10023      or e-mail metquiz@metopera.org. This performance is also being broadcast live      on Metropolitan Opera Radio      on SiriusXM channel 74.

THE STORY 

ACT I. At night, outside the Commendatore's palace in Seville, Leporello grumbles about his fatiguing duties as servant to Don Giovanni, a dissolute nobleman. Suddenly the Commendatore's daughter, Donna Anna, appears, in pursuit of the masked Giovanni, who has entered her chamber and tried to seduce her. When Anna's father arrives on the scene in response to her cries, he is killed in a duel by Giovanni, who escapes. Anna, having gone in search of more aid, returns with her fiancé, Don Ottavio; finding her father dead, she insists that Ottavio swear vengeance on the assassin.

At dawn, Giovanni flirts with a traveler outside a tavern. She turns out to be Donna Elvira, a woman he once seduced in Burgos. She is still lamenting her betrayal. At his master's request, Leporello distracts Elvira by reciting Giovanni's long catalogue of conquest, giving Giovanni time to escape.

Peasants arrive, celebrating the nuptials of their friends Zerlina and Masetto. When Giovanni joins in, he pursues the bride, angering the groom, who is removed by Leporello. Alone with Zerlina, the nobleman suavely persuades her to forget her betrothed and come instead with him to his palace. Elvira interrupts and whisks the girl away. Momentarily thwarted, Giovanni greets Ottavio and the grieving Anna, only to be embarrassed by the persistent Elvira, who denounces him as a seducer. Explaining that Elvira is mad, he leads her off. Anna, having recognized Giovanni's voice as that of her attacker, calls on Ottavio to avenge her honor; when she departs, he muses on his devotion.

At his palace, Giovanni dresses for the wedding feast he has planned for the peasants, toasting the revelry to come.

Outside the palace, Zerlina begs the jealous Masetto to forgive her flirtation with the Don. The two enter the palace together as a minuet sounds from the ballroom. Elvira, Anna and Ottavio arrive in dominoes and mask; Giovanni tells Leporello to invite them to the feast.

Guests crowd the ballroom. While Leporello distracts Masetto, the host dances with Zerlina, drawing her into a nearby chamber. When the girl's cries for help put him on the spot, Giovanni tries to blame Leporello. Elvira, Anna and Ottavio, however, are not fooled; they unmask and confront Giovanni, who barely escapes Ottavio's drawn sword.

As his servant Leporello watches, Don Giovanni greets the peasants Zerlina and Masetto, above (Mojca Erdmann as Zerlina, Joshua Bloom as Masetto, Dwayne Croft as Don Giovanni, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello) © Beatriz Schiller 2012

ACT II. Under Elvira's balcony, Leporello exchanges cloaks with Giovanni to woo the lady in his master's stead. Leporello leads Elvira off, leaving the Don free to serenade Elvira's maid). When Masetto passes by with a band of armed peasants bent on punishing Giovanni, the disguised rake gives them false directions, then, tricking Masetto into handing over his weapons, beats him up. Zerlina tenderly consoles her betrothed.

Elvira follows the disguised Leporello to the Commendatore's palace, where they are surprised by Anna, Ottavio, Zerlina and Masetto, who, mistaking servant for master, threaten Leporello. Frightened, Leporello unmasks, feigns to vow revenge on Giovanni, then escapes. When Anna departs, distraught, Ottavio asks the others to comfort his beloved and leaves in search of the culprit. Elvira, furious at her second betrayal, voices her rage . 

Leporello catches up with his master in a cemetery, where a voice emanating from the statue of the slain Commendatore warns Giovanni of his doom. The Don orders Leporello to invite the statue to dinner. When the terrified servant reluctantly stammers an invitation, the statue nods acceptance.

In her home, Anna postpones marriage to Ottavio until her father is avenged.

In his banquet hall, where an orchestra is playing, Giovanni orders Leporello to serve supper. Elvira rushes in, begging the Don, whom she still loves, to reform. Unmoved, he waves her away. As she departs, her screams announce the arrival of the statue. Giovanni bravely greets his guest, which bids him repent. When he refuses, flames engulf his palace as he is dragged down to hell. As day breaks over the city, Elvira, Anna, Ottavio, Zerlina, Masetto and Leporello gather to plan their future and state the moral: such is the libertine's fate. 

Don Ottavio comforts Donna Anna, left (Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio, Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna) © Beth Bergman 2012

THE BACKGROUND 

To many people, Don Giovanni is the greatest opera ever written — certainly because of its shifting values, the balance of tragic and burlesque, worldly and sublime. Librettist da Ponte called it a dramma giocoso (merry play); Mozart himself called it an opera buffa. He wrote the score for a small company in Prague, where Le Nozze di Figaro had made a tremendous hit. When he began the opera, early in 1787, Mozart was preoccupied with thoughts of death. Just recovered from a severe illness, he had lost his father and then his young physician. Also, he was an active Freemason, and his new chamber music was pervaded with mysticism. So Don Giovanni became a comedy with serious characters and a moral.

Don Juan, the irresistible seducer, is an age-old legendary figure. His archetype in Spanish folklore was Don Juan Tenorio y Salazar, who eloped with the daughter of Don Gonzago de Ulloa, killed the father and was murdered himself by avengers. Since its first recorded treatment, El Burlador de Sevilla, by Tirso de Molina (1571?–1648), the subject has fascinated poets and dramatists. Mozart saw it in Vienna as a ballet by Gluck and an opera by Righini, and he had read Molière's Don Juan, ou le Festin du Pierre (1665). The suggestion to use the story for Prague came from da Ponte, who had heard of the success of a new Don Juan opera in Venice, Giovanni Gazzaniga's Il Convitato di Pietro, with a text by Giovanni Bertati, which da Ponte used as a guide.

The opera was a success in Prague on October 29, 1787, though some of the singers were inadequate, and the overture, which Mozart completed at the last minute, had not been rehearsed. The libertine Casanova, a friend of da Ponte's, attended the premiere. In Austria and Germany, Don Giovanni met with some resistance, but it was chosen to open the new Hofoper in Vienna in 1867. 

The opera was given its first U.S. performances by Manuel García's company, in association with da Ponte, in 1826. The Metropolitan Opera premiere took place during the company's first season, on November 28, 1883, with a cast that included Emmy Fursch-Madi (Anna), Christine Nilsson (Elvira), Giuseppe Kaschmann (the Don) and Marcella Sembrich (Zerlina). The Met's new staging by Michael Grandage was unveiled on October 13, 2011, with Fabio Luisi conducting. 

Leporello sings of Giovanni's conquests to Donna Elvira (Pisaroni, Barbara Frittoli as Donna Elvira) © Beth Bergman 2012

WHAT TO READ AND HEAR 

Good basic sources are Stanley Sadie's economical The New Grove Mozart (Norton paperback) and the more elaborate Mozart Compendium, edited by H. C. Robbins Landon (Schirmer). Maynard Solomon's Mozart: A Life (Harper Collins) is a paragon of meticulously researched, insightful and sympathetic interpretive biography. The ENO/Royal Opera Guide to Don Giovanni (Riverrun paperback) includes a libretto, but Julian Rushton's Cambridge Opera Handbook (paperback) is more probingly analytical. The four relevant essays in Daniel Heartz's Mozart's Operas (California paperback) bring an exceptional blend of historical knowledge and musical insight to bear on the opera's origins and sources. Scores are from Dover (orchestral) and Schirmer (piano-vocal).

With six demanding lead roles, Don Giovanni offers a major casting challenge, rarely met with complete success even on recordings (all 3 CDs). Vintage classics include Josef Krips's 1955 set (Decca), with Cesare Siepi a commanding protagonist, and Carlo Maria Giulini's from 1959 (EMI), in which Eberhard Wächter's rough Giovanni undermines an otherwise superior cast. Siepi is also in the Paul Czinner film derived from 1954 Salzburg performances under Wilhelm Furtwängler (DG, DVD), representing an older, weightier performance tradition. Among "historically informed" recordings laid out to let you play either the Prague or Vienna version, John Eliot Gardiner's (DG Archiv) is the freshest, but Charles Mackerras (Telarc) achieves a comparable effect with modern instruments, historical savvy and fine musicianship. Thomas Hampson's Giovanni can be heard in Nikolaus Harnoncourt's provocative performance (Teldec). 

Among the score (or more) of Don Giovanni perfomances available on DVD, the 1999 Roberto de Simone staging from Vienna State Opera, led brilliantly by Riccardo Muti, has particularly strong appeal (Arthaus). Also recommended is the edgy 2006 Salzburg Festival production staged by Martin Kušej, with Daniel Harding pacing Thomas Hampson and Anna Netrebko (Decca). Gerald Finley is a suave Giovanni in Jonathan Kent's 2010 Glyndebourne staging, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski (EMI). An earlier Glyndebourne production, from 1977, offers Peter Hall's imaginative, thoughtful directing and Bernard Haitink's exhilarating conducting (Arthaus).  

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