Don Giovanni is Mozart’s masterpiece opera. It is simultaneously tragic and comedic, transitioning seamlessly between the two. Don Giovanni is a tale of a reckless womanizer who will stop at nothing to make as many conquests as possible. Through a series of encounters with past lovers, his act is unravelled and he is ultimately sent to hell for his crimes. Though two people die in this opera, there are moments of profound wit and comedic relief from Leporello and Giovanni. After reading the libretto, I had classified the opera as a comedy. However, the operatic rendition took me by surprise; the set was large and overbearing, the costumes drab and dark. It seemed that, for the director, the tragic dimension of the opera overpowered the comedic dimension in the performances. Seeing the opera on the stage and not just reading it gave it a different dimension. Despite the themes of betrayal, jealousy, and revenge that pervaded the opera, the content seemed light and comedic. The performances were comedic: Don Giovanni’s plots and conquests were funny and ridiculous, often throwing Leporello into the craziness with a result of Leporello’s comedic remarks about his master. Don Giovanni himself never seems to take anything seriously, and the other characters look overly dramatic as a result. These instances of comedic relief from Leporello and Don Giovanni keep the opera light, despite the deaths of both the Commendatore and Don Giovanni, and the continual grief of Donna Anna. Ultimately, it seems that Don Giovanni can be interpreted as either a tragedy or a comedy, depending on the audience.

Class differences in Don Giovanni were quite apparent. Don Giovanni feels entitled to his womanizing with peasants and noblewomen alike due to his noble status. Though Leporello is his only true friend, he treats him badly and makes fun of him, often making him an accomplice in his plots. Donna Anna and Don Ottavio are stunned to see this type of behavior from a nobleman, as if his high status is meant to represent his high moral standing. Don Giovanni’s plots revealed the difference in the strength of the romantic relationships in the opera. Don Ottavio holds a strong allegiance to Donna Anna throughout the opera, pledging to catch the villain who seduced her and who killed her father. Even when it seems she has been seduced by Don Giovanni, he believes her when she says it went no further once she found out it wasn’t him. On the other hand, Masetto isn’t so trusting of Zerlina. At the first signs of infidelity, he seems to want to leave her, unable to believe that there is nothing going on between her and Don Giovanni. Mozart portrays the nobles’ love as stronger and less susceptible to jealousy than the peasants’ love. The only two instances of equality between the peasants and the nobles are when Leporello states that Don Giovanni will go after any woman regardless of her class, and when the peasants and nobles stand together at the end of the opera, united by Don Giovanni’s death and their justice.

Don Giovanni, like any opera, is driven by its music. Operas are reliant on their music because it is the only form of communication; it drives the plot forward and reveals the tone of the scene as well as the character’s feelings. When reading the libretto, one can only imagine the feelings of the characters. Yet the instrumentals and vocals of the opera truly revealed the tone of the opera. In light scenes, such as Leporello’s listing of all of Don Giovanni’s conquests, there was light and lilting music, meant to convey the comedy and hilarity of the content. Yet in darker scenes such as the scene when the Commendatore asks Don Giovanni to ‘dine’ with him, there was deeper, slower music that conveyed the dramatic and ominous content. The music alternated between light and heavy, comedic and tragic; this helped represent the duality in the tone of the opera.

I am a huge fan of opera and have now seen twelve operatic performances at the Metropolitan Opera House. This experience was not a new one for me, yet I appreciated it all the same because of its antiquity. There was something nice about dressing up and going to a performance at an old opera house. The costumes, music, and acting all added to the spectacle of the night. Opera itself is large and grand, as reflected in the opera house itself. As opposed to the modern performances we saw, there was something more respected and traditional about opera, rather than new and experimental such as Roseann Spradlin’s “beginning of something”. Because I had a lot of previous experience with operas, it was the modern performances that truly put the opera in perspective. I saw its enormity and grandeur in a new light. Though this wasn’t my favorite rendition of Don Giovanni, I appreciated the operatic skill of the performers and the stylistic efforts of the costume makers and set designers to create such an all-encompassing world for the opera. After all the modern dance performances, I saw this opera with new eyes.