Mozart's Don Giovanni

¶ … Mozart's Don Giovanni a group of villages are busy celebrating the marriage of Zerlina and Masetto. As Don Giovanni and Leporello admire the girls involved, Giovanni begins to grow very interested in Zerlina: "What have we? Well, now! Some honest rustic folk; and lots are lovely!"

In a ploy to win her favor, Don Giovanni invites the party to his castle to eat and drink. Once there, he detains Zerlina, to jealous Masetto's annoyance, and pledges to marry her. "He is just about to win Zerlina over by flattering her and declaring his love for her, when Elvira steps between them, warns Zerlina and, while Don Giovanni whispers to her that Elvira is a poor demented woman, jealous because of her own love for him, leads her away."

When Donna Anna and Don Ottavio appear, not yet realizing that Don Giovanni is the man who murdered her father, Anna seeks his help. However, Donna Elvira arrives and attempts to convey to the others what sort of a character he truly is. Don Giovanni acts to thwart this slander by telling them that Elvira is insane and he takes her away. This does not fully work because Donna Anna realizes from his voice that Don Giovanni was her assailant. Once she tells Don Ottavio the details of the night her father was killed and she begs him to seek vengeance; Ottavio, alone, muses about the extent of his love for her.

Next, Don Giovanni and Leporello resurface, and Leporello fills him in on the details of how he got the villagers drunk and succeeded in locking Elvira out of the castle as well. The Don orders an enormous party in recognition of his successes and leaves stage to make the necessary preparations. Masetto, sulking, enters the garden; he ignores Zerlina's pleas for forgiveness and accuses her of unfaithfulness. She asks Masetto to beat her in the hope that it will somehow stymie his anger towards her. Masetto gives in to her pleas, but when they hear Don Giovanni coming near, Zerlina becomes restless. Masetto then hides, hoping to watch the pair together. Giovanni picks up where he left off in his pressure to seduce Zerlina, and tries to push her aside into the very hiding place where Masetto is located. The Don, clearly surprised, quickly explains to Masetto that Zerlina merely missed her husband; then he invites both of them to his party and leads them away. Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, and Donna Elvira appear wearing masks; the plan is to expose Don Giovanni true character to everyone. Don Giovanni and Leporello, not recognizing them through the masks, ask them to join the party.

As the guests dance and enjoy themselves, Giovanni persists in his covert advances towards Zerlina. When the masked Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, and Donna Elvira arrive, the Don warmly welcomes them and dances with Zerlina. Donna Anna car barely suppress her revulsion for Giovanni, but Ottavio settles her and convinces her to dance and continue their ruse. Meanwhile, "Elvira never lets Don Giovanni out of her sight."

Leporello, attempting to help Giovanni, forcibly takes Masetto and makes him dance without Zerlina. This trickery allows the Don to take Zerlina away and persuades her to join in the "German Dance," which is a lively measure popular among the villagers. "Giovanni dances with Zerlina and drags her into another room while Leporello distracts Masetto,"

but when Zerlina's screams are heard by the partygoers, Masetto, alarmed, hurries to find her. However, when Giovanni reappear he tries to pass Leporello off as the wrongdoer. The masked trio then removes their disguises and makes threats to Don Giovanni. The Don manages to hold them off with his sword, cowardly uses Leporello as a human shield to their attacks, and makes his escape.

Among Mozart's opera's Don Giovanni is truly a unique character. Rather than the deeply distressed lovers that fill many of his other operas, in Don Giovanni the audience is presented an almost demonic hero, who behaves appallingly throughout the entirety of the opera, until he is finally cast down to hell. Despite the observations that much of the play is designed to be comical, the driving energy of it comes through Mozart's musical score, which is powerfully animalistic. In fact, George Bernard Shaw wrote of the score, "The music sounds like ghostly echoes from another world. . . . The roots of my hair stirred; and I recoiled as from the actual presence of Hell."

Additionally, there appear to be two competing pulls throughout the opera: supernaturalism and realism. Yet, though realism is striven for, there is never any depreciation of the musical expression. "So he succeeds in raising everything to an extraordinary level, intensifying every passion to breaking point, even summoning transcendental powers with whom he may well have communicated at this time in many a quiet hour."