Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina: Mozart's Don Giovanni - Essay Example

? Donna Anna, Donna Elvira & Zerlino Mozart's Don Giovanni The choice of the “Three women of Don Giovanni” can give a good understanding of the type of music which was used to create an opera in the 18th century Italy. The opera buffa was a comic opera with a funny story line and light music. Don Giovanni is an opera with an overture and two acts. The overture' opening theme is dramatic and ominous because no one really knows what is going to happen in the 2nd act; it is followed by a light typical theme with many transitions. The composer presents several themes that are heard in the first act. In the coda, he ends it abruptly and immediately goes into the first act. Mozart wrote for all audiences at different levels. The multiple levels are in his music, his storyline and his use of different themes. The overture shows us that Mozart conformed to form but didn't conform to style. The purpose of this paper will be to show how he used the roles of the three women to show that he didn't conform to musical style and social standards. In the beginning of the first act, Don Oliviera sees Don Giovanni leaving Donna Anna's quarters. They are singing an aria in duet. It soon becomes a trio as she is saying how Don Giovanni has scorned her. When he argues with her father, they sing a duet in a passionate tenor voice before the father dies. In order to have full understanding of the women's roles, it is necessary to understand the social context of women in the 18 century. In Kristi Brown's Mozart's Women, she compared Donna Anna to a misfortunate Spanish maiden. It was very common for composers to take the style of where they were living at the time; and write in that genre of music. Donna Anna was a daughter who was to be married. The role was sung by a soprano. Her voice showed her grief finding herself in mourning due to the death of her father. When Don Giovanni left, we hear the first recitavo with the harpsichord. (voices singing to each other as they talk) This is from the Baroque Era. The stone statue invited for dinner in the last scene was part of folk mythology of Don Juan (Donington 446). To return to Mozart's Woman, Brown never once considered the social context whereas Mozart was writing an Italian opera only using the setting and subject matter of "Don Juan" with the 18th century interpretation. It is the purpose of this paper to show how Mozart communicated his values and judgments. For some, it still remained an opera buffa which was the style of the period (Grout 517). It was a light hearted opera which made the audience laugh and also sell tickets. Mozart used his music and symbolism on stage to go beyond the opera buffa. Don Giovanni, a opera in two acts, was composed by Mozart and first performed in Prague in 1787. (Mendelsohn 55) As a common style of writing, Mozart could only use the opera buffa to show how women were treated in the 18th century. Though Mozart considered Don Giovanni as an opera buffa at the time, his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte called an opera giocosco. (Fischer, 167) The Opera was placed in Seville in the 18th century (Mendelsohn 55) Mozart's Don Giovanni was controversial. At the time, the theme was thought to be too serious to be considered a "funny" opera". People usually did not die nor were audiences frightened by stoned statues. Mozart used his three women characters in order to mix the reality of their existence with the storytelling of Don Juan. Don Giovanni was killed. The father became the stone statue. The women became the protagonists. Gounoud wrote in the 19th century that Don Giovanni was an "apogee of the lyrical drama, a wondrous example of truth, beauty of form, appropriateness of characterization, deep insight into the drama, purity of style, ….charm and tenderness in the love passages, and power in pathos." (Krehbiel 69) Don Giovanni "can be viewed as an archetype of every man or woman's alter ego, a man who faces that eternal conflict of the tension, desire and craving for love, and the struggle between emotion and reason, the spirit and the flesh, or the sacred and the profane". (Ballantine 19) In the 18th century period of Enlightenment, women were given intellectual and artistic liberties. These liberties were accepted as long as women adhered to the roles of the domestic life, as well as appearing to support one's husband. Sexuality was open but behind the screen. Donna Anna, had she been scorned by Don Giovanni by our standards, she would have been considered as having been raped. Had she been scorned by the standards of the 18th century of Enlightenment, it would be possible to assume that he only shamed her future position as an aristocratic. Was her role to maintain the household and support her husband in appearance? Nowhere in the opera is it said why she is scorned, a 21rst century assumption is made because of Don Giovanni's past histories as a womanizer. "Don Giovanni, who has already lost or never get hold of most of his real masculinity, having dissipated it in his unreal philandering, will be deprived...if he can't succeed in getting one of the women." (Donigton 448) Musically, Don Giovanni is has a higher tenor voice. His arias are less serious in tone. The tempos are faster and are in rhythm with the orchestra. There has been a great deal of controversy dealing the role women played in the period of Enlightenment. Mozart played with duality in his professional and personal life. His wife would forgive him for his philander with servant girls but not with "educated or artistic"(Stafford 119; Paumgartner, Mozart, 273). As this showed the sexual freedom of the 18th century Italy, it was quite common to have extra marital affairs for both men and women. Discretion was the only rule that was demanded by the upper society to which Don Giovanni never adhered. Donna Elvira had a love-hate relationship with him. They sang in duets and did not sing in recitatives. She sang in mezzo soprano. Don Giovanni was never able to access her rooms. Donna Anna would have had a "waiting room" with a man servant or her lady in-waiting attending to her. It would have been highly unlikely that she, who had a fiance, put herself in a position of having truly been violated. This is where Mozart is making the point of a woman having to put on social graces. Donna Anna shows her intelligence in her coming down in a fury and singing in the duet with Don Octavio "how she wants revenge" in Act I when Don Giovanni had accessed her rooms. It was not a physical affront; it was an affront to her intellectual dignity that he should be able to reach her inner sanctuary. In a more symbolic interpretation, perhaps, Mozart doubted Donna Anna as a bride or maybe the opposite. Mozart liked a strong, intelligent woman who set the rules. Donna Anna will not get married until Don Octavio revenges her father's her father's death. He shows himself to be weaker than she is. This is usually the role of the man, but Mozart reverses the male role as a female role which is a theme he often uses. Bernard Shaw concluded that Don Giovanni was a womanizer who had never succeeded in possessing one woman as he was missing the one trait it takes. He has a heart of stone (Donington 446), thus, he continues looking. He ran away from Donna Anna because he didn't get what he was looking for and her father challenged his pride. When he killed her father and sang that passionate duet, it was just his show of what a desperate soul he had. Mozart's duet with the orchestra playing in the background was a typical trait of Mozart. When he goes to Donna Elvira second time, he pretends a certain affinity. Their love duet is light and playful. Leporello is forced to act like Don Giovanni. Donna Elvira is deceived second time. Showing her superiority, her intelligence and desire to destroy him, he is more conniving and cruel towards her. He has had two women of social aristocracy. Mozart uses full chorus throughout the opera to give the opera buffa style of an opera within an opera: "The dance", "The Tavern" "The Ball"... His chorus are full and have the full orchestra. When Don Giovanni is with the country girls, he teases Zerlina, a tavern maiden who is supposed to be engaged. When the two are together, the music changes to piano and a softer duet until she screams. Finally, he is found out by the three women for who he is. In the last scene of the 2nd act the circle is closed as the stone statue of the man he killed, who can have no one, is invited to the party - a true story of Don Juan. Mozart uses the same theme from the overture. Mozart wrote for three different feminine roles in each of his operas. In Don Giovanni, there are Donna Anna who sings seria, Zerlina who plays the buffa and Donna Elvira - both seria and buffa. Each sings a special aria in this tone. In the first act scene one, Donna Anna sings with Octavio. The aria is sung in duet. The orchestra plays as an accompaniment when they are singing in recitivo, which is the classical style. This is where they are partly talking and singing. When they are singing as a duet, the orchestra is playing. Zerlina gets saved by Donna Elvira and Donna Anna. Women are strong and can stand on their own two feet. The opera shows the start of the European salons for women, the literary circles and the powerful force women have over men. These are new ideas for the 19th century. They are not depended on their male counter parts. She sings a duet with Don Giovanni. She is innocent and naive. She can't possibly understand how a man like Don Giovanni could be in love with her, la ci darem la manor. She thinks it is the true love. (Act I). Donna Elvira hears and sings in an aria (solo voice) Ah, fuggi il traditore. She tells her Donna Anna that she thinks Don Giovanni is the one who killed her father, thus, closing the circle. The three women work to get Don Giovanni in the second act. Two duets and one aria were taken to show the diversity of the music which was used in the 18th century Italian Opera. As Mozart had an advance theory of how women should be treated, he showed with the story of Don Juan, that the womanizer is the looser. It is the period of enlightenment; they are to be treated as intelligent beings. As a coda, Mozart had an open sexual life (Stafford 4). His wife only asked him to be discreet. Many of his opera roles were written for women who he had become intimately fond of. He, in his own way, was a Don Giovanni or a man who was looking for a mother. . Works Cited Ballantine, Christopher. "Social and Philosophical Outlook in Mozart's Operas." The Musical Quarterly 67:4 (1981): pp 507-526.Web. 04 May 2011. Brown-Montessano, Kristi, "Donna Anna, Feminine Vengeance I: The Assailed/Assailant Understanding the Women of Mozart’s Operas." USA: A Simpson Book 2007. Web. 01 May 2011 Burrow, John, edt. Classical Music USA: Dorling Kingsley. 2005. Print. Donington, Robert. "Don Giovanni Goes to Hell." The Musical Times, 122:1661, 1981. Web: 12 April 2012. Fisher, Burton D., edt. Mozart's Don Giovanni: Opera Classics USA: Opera Journey Publishing. 2005. Web. 01 April 2012. Grout, Donald Gray and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music, USA: WW Norton & Company, 2001. Print. J & B. Mozart, Circumstances and Characteristics, The Musical Times and Singing Class, Vol 32, 7-15. London: Musical Times Publications Ltd. 1891. Web. 07 April 2012 Krehbiel, Henry Edward. A Book Of Operas Their Histories, Their Plots and Their Music. 2004. Gutenburg & eBook. Print. Mendelsohn, Felix. The Story of A Hundred Operas. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. 1940. Print. Stafford, Willam. All About Eve: Mozart and Women. n.d. Print. “Vivan le Femmine!” Women in Mozart’s Operas. Selections from Mozart with Commentary by Professor Kristi Brown-Montesano Musicologist, Colburn Conservatory, Los Angeles. Read More