Here is an overview of the entire opera. The numbers in parentheses for Act II refer to the clip numbers on the YouTube performance referenced below – follow this link to see the rest of the opera (The YouTube performance is also the NY Metropolitan opera and James Levine! We were watching a different Levine performance, and he was supposed to be the conductor of the performance we are seeing tomorrow night! It is interesting to compare these similarly staged performances.)
Highlights summary of Don Giovanni:
ACT I –
Notte e giorno faticar – Leporello – opening scene, Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore.
Madamina, il catalogo a questo – Leporello tells Elvira she is but one of many conquests.
La ci darem la mano – Don Giovanni – seduces the peasant girl Zerlina
Bati, bati o bel Masetto – Zerlina – Zerlina asks Masetto for forgiveness (and invites him to beat her.)
Finale Act I – Mash up of morality vs. immorality, (as well as “seria” and “buffa”): the masked guests seek revenge, and the Don seeks another conquest. Both are thwarted.
ACT II –
(12) Deh vieni all finestra – Don Giovanni – trying to woo another conquest (the maid of Elvira.) Leporello has switched clothes and is pursuing Elvira. (He can’t bring himself to close the deal!) Donna Elvira asks Giovanni if he repents, as Leporello, he does (this indicates how Leporello understands real emotions of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, emotions that are beyond Giovanni’s comprehension).
(12) Meta di voi qua vadano – Masetto arrives with townspeople and Giovanni, disguised as Leporello, gives them instructions on how to pursue and punish Giovanni -acnowledging that he deserves to be punished. He then disarms Masetto and beats him, then he escapes (Leporello has much more difficulty deceiving his pursuers in a future scene.)
(13) Vendrai Carino – Zerlina sings to Masetto, acknowledging his pain and offering comfort. Zerlina offers a simple and direct manner of appeasing the physical pain of her beloved (and one assumes his emotional pain at the same time): “toca mi qua” compare this with the formal manner in which Donna Anna consoles the suffering Don Octavio.
(13) Sola, Sola, in buio loco – Elvira and Leporello. Leporello can’t close the deal, he is confronted by the “seria” characters.
(14) Pieta Signori Miei – Leporello pleads his case as an honest man. The “seria” characters are moved by his sincerity, and then he slips out the back while they are not looking.
(14) Il Mio Tesoro in tanto – Don Octavio – he is off to avenge his beloved (among the most florid and “opera seria” pieces musically: lots of flourishes and long sustained notes…) and in an ABA form reminicent of DaCapo aria form. The rigid formality of the music A, B Dacapo and coda, is a musical representation of Octavio’s rigid character and limited humanity. Thought the coda is rather expansive for the aria that precedes it.
(15) Mi Tradi Quell’Alma Ingrata – Donna Elvira, lamenting that she still has feelings for Giovanni, despite acknowledging that he is a monster. More florid melismatic singing, another example of “seria” technique.
(15/16) “O statua gentilissima – in the cemetary: Leporello – on orders of Giovanni, invites the statue – a combination of comic and serious. (inclusion of magic and the supernatural is a conceit of opera seria.
(16/17) Non mi dir, bell’idol mio – Donna Anna professes her true love for Octavio. She expresses an honorable and honest love. Here an example of “seria” emotion is not presented as ironic, or comic or one-dimensional, but Mozart’s music seems to place Anna’s situation in a formal context that still resonates with genuine emotion.
(17/18) Finale – dinner and death for Giovanni. Leporello _”I am ready to serve.” Don G. – “Since I’m paying I want to enjoy myself.” These words portray a very earth-bound relationship: he who pays the piper calls the tune (quite literally in this scene.) Leporello comments on his master’s monstrous appetite, and he does not just refer to his desire for food. (They also comment on the music, and when they get to a tune from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Leporello comments “that is a tune I have heard too many times.” Then they adapt the tune to to sing about the food.)
Elvira comes and offers forgiveness, Don Giovanni is unmoved by any emotions. She asks him again to change his ways, he laughs. “Long live women and wine, they both bring joy to men.”
The penultimate scene with the statue of the Commendatore come to life, is the opera coming full circle. This scene recalls the same three characters from the opening, but the dynamics have shifted. Each is still holding to the same moral position, but the winner will be different this time. This music from this final scene is also prominent in the opening overture). Giovanni is unrepentant, unafraid, unrealistic and ultimately one-dimensional. He is dragged to his death, and no one mourns.
(Last) Coda – Questo E Il fin Di Chi Fa Mal – “This is what happens to those who do bad things”
Anna and Octavio come in afterwards, they hope to find him in chains for their revenge, but he is gone. Octavio would like to finally get married and have the relief he seeks, Anna want another year, he says OK. He is compliant to a fault (literally, that is his greatest fault, he yields too much where Giovanni does not yield at all.)
Elvira is going to go to a convent. Anothe one-dimensional character incapable of the balance required of a happy life.
Zerlina and Masetto will go home together and make a life. (The peasants don’t have worldy resources, but they are happier and more content.)
Leporello – will go off to the inn to find another and better master. He seems to have learned his lesson and has maintained his integrity.
The final ensemble states the morality: Such is the fate of those who do wrong. It is an especially Christian reckoning: the wicked are punished, if they do not repent. Forgiveness is available, you must ask and it will be granted. The balance of the world of Mozart is achieved and re-affirmed.
A few final thoughts:
On balance, Leporello is the most human and fully formed of all the characters. He is motivated by desire, (dresses as Don Giovanni and pursues Donna Elvira), loyalty (he keeps returning to the Don) has a strong work ethic (Notte e giorno faticar, in the end he will also seek a new master to serve), is subject to temptation (at the wedding, and with Donna Elvira);, he feels fear (in the cemetary and in the final scene), he is also repentant “the fault is mine!” (when confronted by Anna, Elvira, Zerlina, Octavio, and Masetto). Imagine if the noblemen acted with the same moral integrity. But he is also cunning (when he is confronted by all those he – and Giovanni- have wronged, he tricks them to allow his escape!).
Octavio is motivated by duty and honor, as is Donna Anna (she can’t marry Octavio until she has sufficiently honored her father’s memory by waiting.) Donna Elvira is also highly motivated by an honor code: having been used and rejected by Giovanni, her only recourse is to go into a convent. Even the Commendatore lives up to his pledge to avenge the attack on his daughter, coming back from the grave to achieve it.
