By John Ardoin

The cast of "Don Giovanni Unmasked."

Mozart undertook what many consider to be his greatest opera on a commission from Prague, following the enormous success there of his opera "Le Nozze di Figaro" in 1786. (Read a synopsis of the opera at: http://www.metopera.org/synopses/figaro.html.) The commission produced "Don Giovanni," and again Lorenzo da Ponte served him as librettist, as he had with "Figaro." That "Giovanni" emerged as one of the monuments of Western culture is awesome when one remembers that it was composed in only ten months of 1787.

By the time Mozart set the Don Juan legend to music, it had, as critic Ernest Newman recounts, "crystallized into a working formula for opera purposes -- the hero-villain and his rascally buffoon of a servant; a dignified victim of Don Juan's sensuality, [and] her aristocratic lover; a lady of somewhat lower social rank, who had been previously seduced and deserted by Juan; a group of peasants with a bride and bridegroom; and, of course, a murdered father [the Commendatore], who reappears as the avenging instrument of heaven in the form of a statue in the final scene."

Don Giovanni (Hvorostovsky) with Zerlina (Szabó).

Don Giovanni is, of course, the driving force behind the actions of all the characters. Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard has pointed out that the Don's life "is the vital core of their existence, his passion resounds everywhere, lending color and carrying power to the Commendatore's gravity, Elvira's fury, and Anna's hatred, Ottavio's pompousness, Zerlina's anxiety, Masetto's bitterness, and Leporello's bewilderment ... Compared with him, all other existence is merely secondary. If one wants uniformity to be the basic rule for an opera, it is easy to see that a more perfect subject ... than 'Don Giovanni' is simply not to be contemplated."

Beyond what Kierkegaard describes, there is another and perhaps stronger pull exercised by the Don on the other characters in the opera. You may recall from Mozart's "Figaro," the rigid strength of the class system in 17th- and 18th-century Europe. We find parallel representations of the classes in "Giovanni" as well: aristocrats Donna Anna and Ottavio on one side and peasants Zerlina and Masetto on the other. But in reality, there is no class conflict in "Giovanni" as there is in "Figaro," for the Don threatens not only the individuals, but social order itself, for both strata. His downfall thus becomes a common cause to both social layers, causing alliance rather than alienation.

Dominique Labelle as Donna Anna.

I think Anna and Ottavio feel the threat of the Don the most, not only because he is from and betrays their class, but because, existing on a highly restrictive social level, they have more to lose if their world is overturned. We can understand this better by comparing Don Ottavio and Don Giovanni. Both are cavaliers, but Giovanni gives way to his desires, showing restraint only when compelled to do so (as in his encounter with Ottavio and Anna in Scene III of Act I).

Ottavio, on the other hand, is always stiffly correct. Giovanni talks continually of love, Ottavio almost never, and then only in terms of Anna. Yet, Ottavio loves Anna (he must, to endure her single-mindedness, and a year's postponement of their wedding following her father's death) to the point of zealously adopting her cause as a matter of his own honor.

For Zerlina and Masetto, the effect of the Don on their lives is not so important and long lasting, and is easier to forget. Zerlina has lost neither a father nor standing within her world. What has happened to her and Masetto is a momentary interruption in their relationship. Yet, Masetto does try to avenge the sense of dishonor he feels even within his given mores. But I have always wondered if his heart was really in it? Poor Masetto, I think, was a coward. Ottavio stalked the Don alone; Masetto required a band of friends, and then made no effort even to fight back when attacked by one from his own class (though it is the Don in disguise, Masetto believes it is Leporello).

Don Giovanni (Hvorostovsky) and Donna Elvira (Dunn-Prosser).

Actually, the most arresting character in the opera apart from the Don, and the one most effected by the Don's behavior, is Elvira. Despite Leporello's catalog of his master's conquests, Elvira is the only lady we encountered who has actually succumbed to the Don. And, where Anna is driven only by hate, Elvira is motivated by stronger emotions: hate plus love. Anna seeks society's vengeance on Giovanni. Elvira alone seems to sense that a greater force must judge and punish the Don. It seems to me significant that Elvira in the final lines of the opera decides to enter a convent. She is, after all, the one character who has been pushed completely outside the bounds of society, and in the end she places herself at the service of a greater mercy.

One last thought about the Don himself. He has to be admired not only for the flashing, sensual portrait drawn of him through Mozart's music, but because of his consistency of spirit, even greatness, in the opera's final scene. Although he knew the game was up, though he was locked in the stone grip of the Commendatore, whom he had murdered, he remained defiant. Better damnation than weakness, better to roast in hell than give way on earth. "Repent," the statue cries. "No," the Don thunders. He is quite a guy. He stands his ground even as the ground gives way beneath him.