Ravinia 2022, Issue 4

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Don Giovanni , K. 527 Scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, three trombones, timpani, mandolin, and strings. In addition, the score calls for onstage ensembles comprising various combinations of pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns, three trombones, and strings. After living in Vienna, the musical capital of Europe, for six years, Mozart still craved suc- cess in Italian opera. Sixteen musico-dramat- ic scores composed since age 11 had honed his craft to near perfection. Viennese audiences, though, had experienced only a small mea- sure of his theatrical talent in two Ger- man-language comic singspiels: Die Ent- führung aus dem Serail ( The Abduction from the Seraglio ; premiered on July 16, 1782, at the Burgtheater) and Der Schauspieldirektor ( The Impresario ; premiered on February 7, 1786, in the Orangery at Schönbrunn Palace). Attempts to procure an Italian opera com- mission from the Austrian emperor had so far failed, and a long queue of more estab- lished, predominantly Italian-born compos- ers refused to step aside for the celebrated young Austrian. Mozart’s official court ap- pointment as Kammermusicus, which began on December 7, 1787, did not include opera composition for the court theater. Over time, it became apparent that Mozart’s entry into the exclusive Italian operatic society required a collaborator capable of surmounting the political and bureaucratic obstacles set in his path, an individual practiced in rhetoric and diplomacy, and a wordsmith capable of tool- ing libretti characterized by Classical grace and contemporary relevance. Lorenzo Da Ponte, the Italian poet who had never written an opera libretto before accept- ing a position at the imperial court theater in 1783 (“Good. Good! We shall have a virgin muse,” Emperor Joseph II allegedly joked), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Joseph Lange (1782) became that sought-after ally. His imperial influence and skillful editing opened doors for the first Mozart–Da Ponte opera, Le noz- ze di Figaro ( The Marriage of Figaro ; 1786), K. 492, based on a controversial, banned play by Beaumarchais. One year later, their second operatic collaboration couched the Don Juan legend within a semi-comic setting. Il disso- luto punito, ossia Il Don Giovanni ( The Liber- tine Punished, or Don Giovanni ; 1787) arose from a commission for the National Theater in Prague, where Figaro had triumphed spec- tacularly. The successful Viennese revival of Figaro in the fall of 1789 prompted the very rapid composition of their final collabo- ration, Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti ( Thus Do They All, or The School of Lovers ; 1790), K. 588. Created within a four- year period, these three Italian works account for one of the most celebrated composer–li- brettist collaborations in the history of opera. Consciously or not, this operatic trilogy tack- led three major social issues of the Enlighten- ment: classism and individual determination, sexual freedom and human relations, and gender stereotypes and chauvinism. The Mar- riage of Figaro engages characters from lower and higher social strata in a clever battle of wits, with the servants outwitting their mas- ters. Uncontrolled and unrepentant sexuality wreaks havoc in Don Giovanni until degener- acy earns eternal damnation and righteous- ness prevails. Two misguided men, operating incognito, test the presumed fickleness of their fiancées—all women, in fact—by luring them into illicit romances in Così fan tutte . These topics merited serious treatment, yet Da Ponte and Mozart addressed each one with comic wit. The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte are descended from the standard Italian com- ic opera tradition, opera buffo . The comic element is handled quite differently in Don Giovanni , which Da Ponte designated a dramma giocoso . Far from being a term of his own invention, dramma giocoso represented a special sub-classification of opera that mixed Lorenzo Da Ponte comic and serious styles. Carlo Goldoni, an- other Italian playwright, had developed the dramma giocoso around mid-century for Venetian opera houses, a repertoire Da Pon- te would have known and likely would have transported with him to Vienna. Characters in Don Giovanni reflect this multifaceted dra- matic genre. Donna Anna and Don Ottavio represent the stereotypical opera seria sopra- no and tenor couple. Zerlina and Masetto are similarly typecast opera buffo peasant lovers. Don Giovanni and Leporello occupy a com- plex middle ground, as each possesses moral and wicked intentions to varying degrees. In writing his Don Giovanni libretto, Da Ponte built upon a centuries-old Don Juan theatrical tradition culminating in Goldoni’s play Don Giovanni Tenorio ossia Il dissoluto ( Don Giovanni Tenorista, or The Libertine ; 1736). Precursors included Juan de la Cueva’s El imfamador ( The Slanderer ; 1581), Tirso de Molina’s El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedro ( The Libertine from Seville and the Stone Guest ; ca.1630), Molière’s Don Juan ou Le festin de pierre ( Don Juan, or the Stone Banquet ; 1665), and Thomas Shadwell’s The Libertine Destroyed (1676). Earlier operatic settings included Vincenzo Righini’s Il con- vitato di pietra ossia Il dissoluto punito ( The Stone Guest, or The Libertine Punished ; 1776) and Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni Ten- orio ossia Il convitato di pietra ( Don Giovanni, or The Stone Guest ; 1787). Da Ponte also drew character material from his conversations with the notorious real-life Giacomo Casanova, whom he had known in Venice and who now lived outside Prague, where Don Giovanni premiered. The librettist himself possessed a well-known reputation for loose morals. Born in a Jewish ghetto in the Republic of Venice, Da Ponte convert- ed to Catholicism and eventually became a priest. His weakness for married women led to several affairs, one producing three illegiti- mate children and a 15-year exile fromVenice. Womanizing continued in Vienna, even after a jealous dentist used nitric acid to dissolve his teeth. Leopold II, the new emperor, quick- ly tired of Da Ponte’s personality flaws—his informal manner of addressing the emperor and, in particular, his frank letter to the new ruler—and dismissed the court poet in 1791. The Mozart–Da Ponte operas may have pleased Viennese audiences, but they entire- ly captivated operagoers in Prague. In 1787, Mozart and his wife Constanze traveled to Prague for the local premiere of The Marriage of Figaro . The opera’s astonishing popularity overwhelmed the composer. “For here noth- ing is talked about except Figaro ,” Mozart wrote to Baron Gottfried von Jacquin on January 15, 1787. “Nothing is played, blown, sung, and whistled except Figaro ; no opera draws the crowds like Figaro —it’s always Figaro .” Soon after, impresario Pasquali Bon- dini, who leased the National Theater for his Italian opera troupe, commissioned Mozart to compose a new opera for the following October. Already engaged in writing two li- brettos, Da Ponte recommended the familiar Don Juan story. Mozart completed most of the opera during the summer months. Again traveling with his wife, Mozart arrived in Prague on October 4—10 days before the scheduled premiere—with an incomplete score in hand. Da Ponte reached the Bohemi- an capital three days later to oversee the stag- ing. The National Theater was not ready in time for the announced opening date, and performances were postponed twice, as Mo- zart described to Jacquin: “It was fixed [again] for the 24th, but a further postponement has been caused by the illness of one of the sing- ers. As the company is so small, the impresa- rio is in a perpetual state of anxiety and has to spare his people as much as possible, lest some unexpected indisposition should plunge him into the most awkward of all situations, that of not being able to produce any show whatsoev- er! So everything dawdles along here because the singers, who are lazy, refuse to rehearse on opera days and the manager, who is anxious and timid, will not force them.” Don Giovanni eventually reached the stage of Prague’s National Theater on October 29. Anxious audience members began arriving an hour before curtain. Still, demand for tickets was so high that many were turned away. The audience greeted Mozart with three cheers as he entered the orchestra pit to conduct. Again, after the much-delayed and taxing per- formance concluded, enthusiastic applause. “Long live Da Ponte! Long live Mozart!” ex- claimed Domenic Guardasoni, the impresa- rio who succeeded Bondini at the National Theater. “All impresarios, all virtuosi should bless their names. So long as they live, we shall never know what theatrical poverty means!” Prague National Theater RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 1 – AUGUST 14, 2022 36