Music scholar Nicholas Till suggests that Don Giovanni can be seen as “a demonic minor-key subversion” of Le Nozze di Figaro . The parallels between the two Mozart/Da Ponte operas are striking, and performers will benefit from taking a close look at both operas when preparing for either one. The operas present two distinct worlds that share many similarities, but with one crucial difference: Figaro’s inhabitants are free to act upon their own self-interests, whereas Giovanni is about an emotional dictator.
The Maid: Susanna/Zerlina
Susanna is a maid and Zerlina is a country girl, each engaged to be married. These roles call for a light, lyric coloratura soprano with a straightforward and pleasant demeanor. Susanna’s almost constant presence on stage casts her in the role of guide and protagonist. She is ingenious, quick, attractive, witty, and attentive to her mistress. Musically, she holds her own; in the molto andante of the Act II finale she sings triplets above the emotionally unstable Count and Countess.
Zerlina, on the other hand, is easily swayed off course. She ignores Masetto’s outraged cries of ” Malandrina! ,” and succumbs to the allure of Giovanni’s status. She adopts his melody in their duet (La ci darem da mano ), conveniently absolving herself of guilt by proclaiming it ” innocente amor . ”
The Righteous Couple: Marcellina & Bartolo/Donna Anna & Ottavio
Donna Anna and Ottavio represent Baroque ideals of stasis and trust in authority. Stalwart Anna doesn’t gain audience sympathy easily: her decision to mourn her father’s death for a full year seems prudish when contrasted to Giovanni’s madly passionate escapades. Ottavio promises that Anna will find ” sposo e padre in me ,” but the contrast between his brave words and bland manner mark him as effete.
Bartolo and Marcellina are pure buffa to Giovanni’s seria couple. Like Anna and Ottavio, they interrupt the action by trying to implement their own wild schemes. The pomp and circumstance surrounding Bartolo’s aria (La vendetta, oh la vendetta ) and Marcellina’s duet of feigned politeness (Via resti servita ), perfectly illustrate their farcicality. As with Anna and Ottavio, we feel there is something inauthentic about their certainty and single-mindedness. As ludicrous buffa , however, they never pose a sincere challenge to the hero and heroine. Once discovered to be Figaro’s parents, their disruptive plans are discarded, and their induction into the larger community is immediate.
The Wronged Woman: Countess Almaviva/Elvira
These two dramatic coloratura sopranos are sympathetic women, capable of deep feeling and consistently ill-used by men. The Countess is first seen alone in her room, beseeching the God of Love to restore the Count’s affection, or grant her death. The ” morir ” of her cavatina is not resolved, and neither is her problem. Later in the opera, the Countess realizes her own strength in constancy (Dove sono ), and reclaims her self-possession. She is ultimately able to rise above the Count’s wantonness and declare moral victory in the finale (“Piu docil’io sono e dico di si “).
Elvira is never able to separate herself from Don Giovanni, as can be foretold by Ah, che mi dice mai . In this first aria, she sings about him even as he mocks her by interjecting words of sympathy. He controls her emotions (vengefulness, sadness) and actions (her frantic pursuit of Leporello in the guise of his master, and her pleading for his life: “ Io mio marito! Pieta ! “). Unlike the Countess’s camaraderie with Susanna and Cherubino, when Elvira connects with Zerlina, Ottavio, and Anna, it is not out of kindred feeling, but strictly to thwart the Don.
The Manservant: Figaro/Leporello
When Leporello, hungrily watching Giovanni eat his meal, hears the third snatch of music with which the Don is being serenaded, it turns out to be a tune of Figaro’s: Non piu andrai . “Ah,” Leporello remarks, “I know this one a bit too well.” Figaro’s tune might easily reverberate throughout Leporello’s life, as both go through extensive tribulations at the hands of their masters. These relationships between master and servant are mixtures of disgust and admiration, repulsion and emulation. Leporello imitates Giovanni in both music and behavior, and Figaro is extremely jealous of the Count (Aprite un po’ que gl’occhi ).
The reversal of social hierarchy in Figaro , made even more explicit in Beaumarchais’ play, is also found in Giovanni , which, according to some critics, is an attack on the retrograde mores of Hapsburg society. In Figaro it is the lower classes, particularly Susanna and Figaro, who battle authority and win victory over the aristocratic Count. But in Giovanni , neither Leporello nor Zerlina is able to defy social norms: it is the Don who takes the transgressive role and disregards class and social status. The “catalogue” aria is a tribute to a universal lover: this man does not discriminate between classes or body types, but possesses an all-encompassing largesse for any who “wear skirts.” Ironically, it is the cowed Leporello who sings this aria of exploits, with the mixed sentiment of glorification and abhorrence that typifies his relationship with his master.
The Lecher: Count Almaviva/Don Giovanni
Giovanni is notoriously difficult to assess; although constantly present, he is curiously devoid of depth. Where does one locate Giovanni as person rather than an idea? How does one even start to analyze the character who first says to the audience, “You will never know who I am?” Kierkegaard wrote that Don Juan is not an individual but “the power of nature, the daemonic, which as little tires of seducing or is done with seducing as the wind is tired of blowing.” A superficial analysis likens him to Almaviva; both are lechers, the sole baritone of each opera, and neither is particularly considerate of others. The Count would like to be as powerful as Giovanni, but societal constraints keep him in check. In Figaro the community is the propagator of life, and despite his riches, Almaviva is not at its center.
Giovanni, by contrast, is a creature whose desires reign supreme, at whatever cost. Although his penchant for amore is never in doubt, Giovanni’s violent temper and enjoyment at watching others suffer should not be minimized. It is hard to imagine even a hell in which Giovanni is not powerful. Giovanni, after all, has revealed the essential energy of unchecked emotion. After his downfall, little hope is left for the living. Anna and Ottavio are left with a relationship devoid of ardor, and Elvira’s self-inflicted religious banishment is a tragic demotion of a once-passionate woman.
Love and Death: Cherubino/Commendatore
Cherubino, the charming and androgynous pursuer of love, and the ghostly Commendatore are curiously essential characters.
Although thematic material from the opera is not used in the Figaro overture, its joyous and life-affirming qualities speak of Eros and pleasure, evoking none other than Cherubino.
The unparalleled overture of Don Giovanni masterfully evokes the spheres of life and afterlife. The music which later denotes the statue’s return is also our andante introduction. The Commendatore embodies the judgement on Giovanni, both in his first guise as Patriarch, and later as Death.
Eros and Thanatos, or love and death, are both linked conceptually to sexuality, as are the two operas. But perhaps more importantly, or more inclusively, both operas present the dilemma of individual versus society, with love as connection and death as isolation. It is this difficult and ongoing negotiation between self and other that is made explicit in the two works. By giving music to the multiplicity of voices and the varied possibilities of interaction, two worlds are spun which yield similar patterns, and dissimilar tones.
