Don Giovanni, to me, has always been a perfect blend of comedy with tragedy. The overall storyline with Don Giovanni ‘s downfall was a tragedy. This incredible opera ends with the dragging of Don Giovanni to hell by the statue of the Commandatore as consequence to his crimes. The different sexual encounters that Don Giovanni has with the women, leading them to seek revenge, and the violent death of the Commandatore makes this opera rather grim. However, there are many comic scenes with Leporello, who I felt stole the show. His reminders to Don Giovanni of his immoral actions come in a manner of funny recitatives and arias. His close relationship with Don Giovanni allows him to say many things with no restraints and therefore, he takes the opportunity to utter many humorous remarks.

The class differences in the libretto I thought were due the naming of the characters and the way that the lower class characters talked to the higher class characters. The lower class characters were only called by only their names such as Zerlina, Masseto, and Leporello rather than Don Giovanni, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Don Octavio. Also, the lower class characters spoke formally to the characters of the higher class. Leporello, even though a close friend of Don Giovanni, spoke to him with rather respect. The same went for the way that Zerlina and Masseto spoke to Don Giovanni. They had respect for the nobleman even though Masseto knew what was going on. Also, the manner of speaking for lower class characters usually consisted of more repetitions in their arias or lines, which also went with the music.

The blend of comedy and tragedy is reflected in the music of Mozart, displaying the incredible skills that people admire of Mozart.  There are quick tempo, short repeated melodic phrases accompanying Leporello’s arias and witty remarks. Contrasting the comedy, there were long, ominous tones for the music for scenes such as the graveyard scene and the statue of the Commendatore dragging Don Giovanni to hell.  The music enhanced the opera’s emotions and cued the viewer in on all the different characters in a specific scene.  Also, when characters had arias (the long emotional monologues), the music was successfully able to capture the emotions whether humorous like Leporello’s catalogue aria or enticing like Don Giovanni and Zerlina’s aria of “ La ci darem la mano”.

I enjoyed the opera in its entirety with the costumes, grand voices, orchestral music, and incredible staging and effects. This version of Don Giovanni wasn’t the best in my opinion because even though the characters’ voices and the music was incredible and stayed true to the opera, the acting and staging was not as convincing to me. There wasn’t a flow or a nice movement through the scenes and the acting felt a little too stiff.  With that being said, the opera in general compared to the other more contemporary performances we have experienced during the seminar was much more extravagant. The experience of actually going to an opera and viewing an opera added to the grandiose performance with dressing up and viewing the beautiful opera house. The other more cotemporary performances were more focused on what was on that stage and how we felt about what was being presented to us rather than where we were watching the performance or the etiquette of watching the performance. Also, we had more or less expectations of the opera while for the other contemporary performances, anything could’ve happened.