Sunday Classics with Ken (from DownWithTyranny): Homing in on that moment in Don Giovanni when "Everything returns to normal" -- or should we say "the new normal"?

CAUTIONARY NOTE (MONDAY): Maybe it was just supercharged enjoyment of the bounties of Internet Archive on a Pandemic Summer Sunday, but yesterday I had a dickens of a time both uploading audio clips and getting them to load in posts. If they aren't loading for you, try refreshing once or twice (or ----). Sometimes it helps.

JUST-POSSIBLY-FINAL UPDATE (MONDAY): We now have our answer to the question: What happens after Don Giovanni is dragged down into the flaming underworld? We didn't get to the related destination I intended, as explained in my "STILL TO COME" note, but for now, back to Don Giovanni.

FINAL UPDATE (WEDNESDAY): The music was all ready to go, with the Fidelio part of the project seemingly well in hand. Until, alas, it began expanding, the way these things usually do, and I've decided to let it do so, because this is, you know, a piece so close to my heart. So what do you say we just reconvene on Sunday, then start with some Don Giovanni review and proceed to Fidelio? I'll just give you a tease at the end.

Is there anything more miraculous than the way
this monumental opera ends? A mere 12 seconds:

New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond.

Or, to back up just a bit . . .

This is the end that befalls evildoers,
and in this life scoundrels
always receive their just desserts.

Claire Watson and Mirella Freni, sopranos; Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano; Nicolai Gedda, tenor; Walter Berry, bass-baritone; Paolo Montarsolo, bass; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond.

by Ken

We've already heard (first in our John Macurdy remembrance, then again last week) -- which isn't going to stop us from hearing it again! -- that amazing scene in which the statue of the Commendatore shows up at Don Giovanni's place for that Last Supper he was invited to, the whole shebang ending with the Don being dragged down into the flames of Hell.

We always read that in the early history of da Ponte and Mozart's Don Giovanni -- let's call it the first century -- this was where the curtain was rung down, and a mighty impressive final picture and sound it must have made. It's not hard to see the logic of it. After all, there's only about seven minutes' worth of music still to come, and none of it can begin to compete for sheer drama with what we've just witnessed. At the same time, though, how bone-headedly wrong!

My original plan was to really do up the opera's final scene right, going back first to the portion we skipped over when we first heard Don Giovanni's dramatic (to put it mildly confrontation with his invited and yet still hardly expected supper guest, and then work our way through to the end. My second thought was, yes, to rehear that great climactic scene, but from there just to pursue those final seven minutes, where we take leave of the six other characters we've seen interacting with the Don in the final plot arc of his life.

WE CAN CONSIDER THE "FORM" OF THESE FINAL MINUTES
LATER. FOR NOW LET'S JUST HEAR THEM -- IN THREE PARTS

Before Part 1: THE BACKGROUND: THE STATUE
OF THE COMMENDATORE COMES TO SUPPER

LEPORELLO hides under the table as DON GIOVANNI returns to the reception hall accompanied by THE STATUE OF THE COMMENDATORE.

THE STATUE: Don Giovanni, to have supper with you
you invited me, and I've come!
DON GIOVANNI: I would never have believed it;
but I'll do what I can.
Leporello! Another supper
have brought at once!
LEPORELLO [from under the table]: Ah master! We're all dead!
DON GIOVANNI: Go, I say!
THE STATUE: Stay a bit!
He does not partake of mortal food
who partakes of celestial food!
Other cares more grave than this
has brought me here below!
LEPORELLO: I seem to have fever . . .
and to keep my limbs still . . .
I can't anymore!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]: Speak then!
What do you wish? What do you want?
THE STATUE: I speak, listen! I have no more time!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]: Speak, speak! I stand listening!
LEPORELLO [overlapping]: Ah, I can't keep my limbs still anymore!
THE STATUE: You invited me to supper,
now know your obligation!
Respond to me, respond to me,
will you come to have supper with me?
LEPORELLO [standing well back]:
Oh dear, oh dear! I don't have time, excuse me!
DON GIOVANNI: I'll never be wrongly accused of cowardice!
THE STATUE: Decide!
DON GIOVANNI: I've already decided!
THE STATUE: Will you come?
LEPORELLO: Tell him no, tell him no!
DON GIOVANNI: My heart is firm within my breast:
I'm not afraid, I'll come!
THE STATUE: Give me your hand in pledge!
DON GIOVANNI [giving his hand]: Here it is! Ah! Alas!
THE STATUE: What's the matter?
DON GIOVANNI: How ice cold this is!
THE STATUE: Repent, change your life!
It's the ultimate moment!
DON GIOVANNI: No, foolish old man!
THE STATUE: Repent!
DON GIOVANNI: No!
THE STATUE: Repent!
DON GIOVANNI: No!
THE STATUE: Yes!
LEPORELLO: Yes, yes!
DON GIOVANNI: No, no!
THE STATUE: Ah, there's no longer time!
[THE STATUE leaves. Flames burst out from all directions.]
DON GIOVANNI: With what unaccustomed terror
I feel the spirits assail me!
Whence issue these swirling flames
so fraught with horror?
CHORUS OF SPIRITS [from below]: All is as nothing to your crimes!
Come! There is worse in store!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]:
Who is rending my soul? Who is tearing at my viscera
What torture, alas! What frenzy!
LEPORELLO [overlapping]:
What a desperate grimace! What gestures of a soul in hell!
What screams! What wailing!
DON GIOVANNI: What terror! etc.
LEPORELLO: How it fills me with terror! etc.
CHORUS OF SPIRITS: All is as nothing etc.
DON GIOVANNI [as he is swallowed up by the ever-increasing flames that burst through the mansion]: Ah!

-- translation draws on Peggie Cochrane's for Decca

Franz Crass (bs), Commendatore; Nicolai Ghiaurov (bs), Don Giovanni; Walter Berry (bs-b), Leporello; New Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded June-July 1966

Gottlob Frick (bs), Commendatore; Eberhard Wächter (b), Don Giovanni; Giuseppe Taddei (b), Leporello; Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI, recorded Oct.-Nov. 1959

Kurt Moll (bs), the Commendatore; Bernd Weikl (b), Don Giovanni; Gabriel Bacquier (bs-b), Leporello; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded Oct.-Nov. 1978

One point of interest here: a couple of baritone Don Giovannis. Once upon a time time in my purist way of the time I believed strongly in this, since it's clear from the writing that Mozart was thinking of the Don as the highest of the "bass" voices he was deploying. (Back then baritones hadn't been invented yet, but since there must surely have been substantial differentiation among the assorted basses plying their trade, voice-savvy composers surely had actual vocal configurations in their head.) Same with Cosi fan tutte, where the writing makes clear that Mozart thought of the aged philosopher Don Alfonso as falling vocally between the tenor Ferrando and the bass Guglielmo. But in both cases, I don't think I've ever heard a cast that fit my theoretical preferences actually work -- and that definitely includes a baritone Don Giovanni.

Okay, now we're ready to proceed to the post-apocalyptic concluding episode of the opera, as -- according to the stage direction -- "everything returns to normal."

Part 1: DON GIOVANNI'S VICTIMS STORM IN -- SEEKING
VENGEANCE! LEPORELLO BRINGS THEM UP TO SPEED

Donna Elvira, Zerlina, Don Ottavio, and Masetto:
"Ah, dov'è il perfido?" ("Ah, where is the villain?")

The flames suddenly increase and engulf DON GIOVANNI. After his disappearance, everything returns to normal and the other characters enter.

DONNA ELVIRA, ZERLINA, DON OTTAVIO, and MASETTO: Ah, where is the villain?
Where is the ingrate?
All of my rage
I want to vent on him!
DONNA ANNA: Only when I see him
bound in chains
will my anguish
be soothed.
LEPORELLO: Abandon hope
of ever finding him.
Give up your search;
he has gone far away.
THE OTHERS: What's happened? Tell us!
LEPORELLO: In flame and smoke
listen to this,
the man of stone --
wait a moment --
right there
gave the sign,
and right there the Devil
came and dragged him down!
THE OTHERS: My stars, what do I hear?
LEPORELLO: My account is true!
DONNA ELVIRA and THE OTHERS:
Ah, it must be the ghost that I/she encountered!
-- translations (mostly) by William Murray for Capitol Records

Don Ottavio: "Or che tutti, o mio tesoro" ("Now that we all, o my treasure") . . . Zerlina, Masetto, and Leporello: "Resti dunque quel birbon" ("So the wretch can stay")

DON OTTAVIO: Now that we all, o my treasure,
have been avenged by heaven,
grant, grant me my reward.
Do not let me languish anymore.
DONNA ANNA: Allow, dearest, another year
for the sorrow of my heart.
DON OTTAVIO and DONNA ANNA:
To the desires of one who adores me/you,
a faithful love must give way.
DONNA ELVIRA: I shall retire to a convent
to finish out my life!
ZERLINA and MASETTO: We, Masetto/Zerlina, let's go home!
To have supper together!
LEPORELLO: And I'm going to the tavern
to find a better master!
ZERLINA, MASETTO, and LEPORELLO:
So let the wretch stay
with Proserpina and Pluto.
And we all, o good people,
will repeat joyfully
that most ancient refrain.

The six survivors: "Quest'è il fin di chi fa mal"
("This is the end that befalls evildoers")

THE SIX: This is the end that befalls evildoers,
and in this life scoundrels
always receive their just desserts.

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (s), Donna Elvira; Graziella Sciutti(s), Zerlina; Luigi Alva (t), Don Ottavio; Piero Cappuccilli (b), Masetto; Joan Sutherland (s) Donna Anna; Giuseppe Taddei (b), Leporello; Philharmonia Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI, recorded Oct.-Nov. 1959

Claire Watson (s) Donna Anna; Christa Ludwig (ms), Donna Elvira; Mirella Freni (s), Zerlina; Nicolai Gedda (t), Don Ottavio; Paolo Montarsolo (bs), Masetto; Walter Berry (bs-b), Leporello; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded June-July 1966

And isn't this what we come to the theater, or engage in any of the arts, for? You know, to see scoundrels always receiving their just desserts. Well, it may be what we wish, or think we wish. (Did we really want to see, say, Tony Soprano get what he had coming? Now, Mr. Chase, I'm not saying that that's what happened. But if it is -- and I guess you still won't tell us -- is that what we wanted to see happen?) No, I think we come sort of primed to see those evildoers doing their evil in fictional form, with just desserts coming as they will, or won't.

However, da Ponte and Mozart have given us an enormous investment in what we might call the Don Giovanni Six: the three women plus fiancé (Donna Anna's), bridegroom (Zerlina's), and the hopelesslly solitary Leporello. I've often said that for me Don Giovanni is really about them more than it is about Don Giovanni. And hear we have their reckoning.

One way of looking at it is in the standard poll-taker's question: Do you think you're better or worse off than (say) a year, or (say) four years, ago? In this case only one character has suffered irreparable harm: Donna Anna, in the form of the loss of her father. But then, that old bastard had it coming, one way or another. And I'm hoping for Anna's sake that with his toxic presence removed as a living force in her life, she's got a shot at piecing together some sort of life, which may or may not include Ottavio. I think they're both surely better off with that year's postponement of their wedding plans.

As for Elvira, a character da Ponte and Mozart have set us up to truly fall in love with, after all the years I've spent feeling bad for her shutting herself up in a convent, I'm not wondering whether (a) she's ever going to really find her way to one, and (b) even if she does, do I really think she's going to stay there very long? What she really needs is a more satisfactory way of dealing with men, and her romantic hopes generally. Godspeed, E! And you too, Leporello! Hope you find that better master -- or, even better, a way of living your life with more fulfilling goals.

Which leaves Zerlina and Masetto, and after all they've been through, I think maybe they're right on track! Among the many things going on in Don Giovanni is a drama of economic and social class, and it's a wonderful -- and I think not at all unintentional -- irony that the least socially and economically advantage characters come out of our shared drama in the best shape. Be well, all!

NOW, LET'S LISTEN TO THIS WHOLE CHUNK, AND
A BIT MORE -- THROUGH TO THE END OF THE OPERA!

Yes, now that we've chopped the thing up, it's put-it-all-together time. We're even adding back some additional material -- still not the whole of the Banquet Scene (sorry!), but going back to our pickup point in the John Macurdy post: where Don Giovanni tries to get the ever-intruding Donna Elvira to let him eat his supper in peace -- and, if she likes, join him.

First we hear this chunk from my two "go to" Don Giovanni recordings, the 1955 Krips-Decca and 1978 Maazel-CBS. Then, because I thought it would be interesting to hear at least one go-through with a baritone rather than bass Don Giovanni, among the not-very-happy options, the best I could come up with was a 1963 performance from Buenos Aires's Teatro Colón.

MOZART: Don Giovanni, K. 527: Act II, Final Scene,
from Don Giovanni, "Lascia ch'io mangi"

DON GIOVANNI and LEPORELLO, having found their way separately to the secluded cemetery where they had an unsettling encounter with a statue of the COMMENDATORE, leading the DON to bully LEPORELLO into inviting the statue to supper, and having received a still-more-unsettling affirmative reply, master and servant have made it back to DON GIOVANNI's home, and the famous supper has begun, with cheery music provided by a band of musicians -- a series of tunes culminating in one the DON insists he "knows only too well": Figaro's "Non più andrai" from The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart's previous opera! Whereupon who should burst in but that perennial in-burster DONNA ELVIRA, come to make one last attempt to get the man she considers her husband to see the error of his ways. Finally, the exasperated host declares:

DON GIOVANNI: Allow me to eat! Allow me to eat!
[seating himself again] And if you like, eat with me.
DONNA ELVIRA: Stay, cruel man!
In rank obscenity a horrible example of iniquity!
LEPORELLO [overlapping]: If he isn't touched by her suffering
he has a heart of stone, or no heart at all!
DON GIOVANNI: Long live femininity!
Long live good wine!
Sustenance and glory of humanity!
DONNA ELVIRA: Stay, cruel man! etc.
LEPORELLO: If he isn't touched by her suffering etc.
DON GIOVANNI: Long live femininity! etc.
[Finally DONNA ELVIRA goes, but returns immediately, screaming, and rushes out a door on the opposite side.]
DON GIOVANNI and LEPORELLO: Whatever is this scream?
DON GIOVANNI [to LEPORELLO]: Go and see what's happened.
[LEPORELLO goes out.]
LEPORELLO [outside]: Ah!
DON GIOVANNI: What a devilish scream!
Leporello, what is it?
LEPORELLO [returning]: Ah, sir! for pity's sake
don't go out there!
The man of stone, the white man . . .
ah, master! I tremble,
I'm failing!
If you'd seen what a face,
if you'd heard how it goes ta! ta! ta! ta!
DON GIOVANNI: I don't understand anything at all!
LEPORELLO: Ta! ta! ta! ta!
DON GIOVANNI: You're mad, really!
LEPORELLO: Ah, listen!
DON GIOVANNI: Someone's knocking! Open up!
LEPORELLO: I'm trembling!
DON GIOVANNI: Open up, I say!
LEPORELLO: Ah!
DON GIOVANNI: Open!
LEPORELLO: No!
DON GIOVANNI: Madman! To satisfy my curiosity
I'll go and open it myself!
[He takes up a lamp and with drawn sword goes to open the door.]
LEPORELLO: I don't want to see our friend anymore!
Ever so quietly I'll hide, I'll hide.
[He gets under the table. DON GIOVANNI returns, accompanied by THE STATUE OF THE COMMENDATORE.]
THE STATUE: Don Giovanni, to have supper with you
you invited me, and I've come!
DON GIOVANNI: I would never have believed it;
but I'll do what I can.
Leporello! Another supper
have brought at once!
LEPORELLO [from under the table]: Ah master! We're all dead!
DON GIOVANNI: Go, I say!
THE STATUE: Stay a bit!
He does not partake of mortal food
who partakes of celestial food!
Other cares more grave than this
have brought me here below!
LEPORELLO: I seem to have fever . . .
and to keep my limbs still . . .
I can't anymore!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]: Speak then!
What do you wish? What do you want?
THE STATUE: I speak, listen! I have no more time!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]: Speak, speak! I stand listening!
LEPORELLO [overlapping]: Ah, I can't keep my limbs still anymore!
THE STATUE: You invited me to supper,
now know your obligation!
Respond to me, respond to me,
will you come to have supper with me?
LEPORELLO [standing well back]:
Oh dear, oh dear! I don't have time, excuse me!
DON GIOVANNI: I'll never be wrongly accused of cowardice!
THE STATUE: Decide!
DON GIOVANNI: I've already decided!
THE STATUE: Will you come?
LEPORELLO: Tell him no, tell him no!
DON GIOVANNI: My heart is firm within my breast:
I'm not afraid, I'll come!
THE STATUE: Give me your hand in pledge!
DON GIOVANNI [giving his hand]: Here it is! Ah! Alas!
THE STATUE: What's the matter?
DON GIOVANNI: How ice cold this is!
THE STATUE: Repent, change your life!
It's the ultimate moment!
DON GIOVANNI: No, foolish old man!
THE STATUE: Repent!
DON GIOVANNI: No!
THE STATUE: Repent!
DON GIOVANNI: No!
THE STATUE: Yes!
LEPORELLO: Yes, yes!
DON GIOVANNI: No, no!
THE STATUE: Ah, there's no longer time!
[THE STATUE leaves. Flames burst out from all directions.]
DON GIOVANNI: With what unaccustomed terror
I feel the spirits assail me!
Whence issue these swirling flames
so fraught with horror?
CHORUS OF SPIRITS [from below]:
All is as nothing to your crimes!
Come! There is worse in store!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]:
Who is rending my soul? Who is tearing at my viscera
What torture, alas! What frenzy!
LEPORELLO [overlapping]:
What a desperate grimace! What gestures of a soul in hell!
What screams! What wailing!
DON GIOVANNI: What terror! etc.
LEPORELLO: How it fills me with terror! etc.
CHORUS OF SPIRITS: All is as nothing etc.
[The flames suddenly increase and engulf DON GIOVANNI.]
DON GIOVANNI [as he's swallowed up]: Ah!

[After DON GIOVANNI's disappearance, everything returns to normal. The six other characters rush in.]
DONNA ELVIRA, ZERLINA, DON OTTAVIO, and MASETTO: Ah, where is the villain?
Where is the ingrate?
All of my rage
I want to vent on him!
DONNA ANNA: Only when I see him
bound in chains
will my anguish
be soothed.
LEPORELLO: Abandon hope
of ever finding him.
Give up your search;
he has gone far away.
THE OTHERS: What's happened? Tell us!
LEPORELLO: In flame and smoke,
listen to this,
the man of stone --
wait a moment --
right there
gave the sign,
and right there the Devil
came and dragged him down!
THE OTHERS: My stars, what do I hear?
LEPORELLO: My account is true!
DONNA ELVIRA and THE OTHERS:
Ah, it must be the ghost that I/she encountered!

DON OTTAVIO: Now that we all, o my treasure,
have been avenged by heaven,
grant, grant me my reward.
Do not let me languish anymore.
DONNA ANNA: Allow, dearest, another year
for the sorrow of my heart.
DON OTTAVIO and DONNA ANNA:
To the desires of one who adores me/you,
a faithful love must give way.
DONNA ELVIRA: I shall retire to a convent
to finish out my life!
ZERLINA and MASETTO: We, Masetto/Zerlina, let's go home!
To have supper together!
LEPORELLO: And I'm going to the tavern
to find a better master!
ZERLINA, MASETTO, and LEPORELLO:
So let the wretch stay
with Proserpina and Pluto.
And we all, o good people,
will repeat joyfully
that most ancient refrain.

DONNA ANNA, DONNA ELVIRA, ZERLINA, DON OTTAVIO, LEPORELLO, and MASETTO: This is the end that befalls evildoers,
and in this life scoundrels
always receive their just desserts.

Cesare Siepi (bs), Don Giovanni; Lisa della Casa (s), Donna Elvira; Fernando Corena (bs), Leporello; Kurt Böhme (bs), Commendatore; Hilde Gueden (s), Zerlina; Anton Dermota (t), Don Ottavio; Walter Berry (bs-b), Masetto; Suzanne Danco (s) Donna Anna; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Josef Krips, cond. Decca, recorded June 1955

Ruggero Raimondi (bs), Don Giovanni; Kiri Te Kanawa (s), Donna Elvira; José van Dam (bs-b), Leporello; John Macurdy (bs), Commendatore; Teresa Bergamza (ms), Zerlina; Kenneth Riegel (t), Don Ottavio; Malcolm King (bs), Masetto; Edda Moser (s) Donna Anna; Chorus and Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Lorin Maazel, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded June-July 1978

Eberhard Wächter (b), Don Giovanni; Wilma Lipp (s), Donna Elvira; Geraint Evans (b), Leporello; Franz Crass (bs), Commendatore; Jeanette Scovotti (s), Zerlina; Luigi Alva (t), Don Ottavio; Ricardo Catena (b), Masetto; Elisabeth Grümmer (s), Donna Anna; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, cond. Live performance, Sept. 10, 1963

STILL TO COME: THE IMPULSE TO HOMILETIC EPIGRAPH
DIDN'T END WITH MOZART -- MAKE WAY FOR BEETHOVEN!

The original idea for this post, if you can dignify it with the lofty term "idea," was to get to the piece of old-style homiletic wisdom that concludes Don Giovanni -- an old trick Mozart on the evidence did not out of obligation but from real fondness -- and shoot forward to its obvious counterpart, and perhaps corrective, as no less than Beethoven showed us that if we want epigraphic moralizing, we don't have to get it in the casual morality of his otherwise-adored Mozart. ~~So yes, in a sort of appendix-post now under construction and coming shortly, we'll shoot to the end of Fidelio.~~

AS NOTED IN THE "FINAL UPDATE" ATOP THIS POST, WE'RE
ADJOURNING NOW TILL SUNDAY. BUT I PROMISED A TEASE . . .

. . . and as a reward for your patience, I'm offering you something that was all set to lead off the "appendix" post, which still -- as noted at the top of this post -- is going to "start with some Don Giovanni review and proceed to Fidelio." And what do you know? We're going to "shoot to the end of Fidelio" after all!

"He who has won such a wife
may join in our rejoicing.
Never can we too much hymn
the savior of her husband's life."

Jon Vickers (Florestan) and Sena Jurinac (Leonore) at Covent Garden, 1961

Jon Vickers (t), Florestan; then: Sena Jurinac (s), Leonore; Gottlob Frick (bs), Rocco; Elsie Morison (s), Marzelline; John Dobson (t), Jaquino; Forbes Robinson (bs), Don Fernando; Covent Garden Opera Chorus, Covent Garden Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. Live performance, Feb. 24, 1961

Sunday Classics with Ken (from DownWithTyranny)

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Homing in on that moment in Don Giovanni when "Everything returns to normal" -- or should we say "the new normal"?

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