Mozarts Don Giovanni Essays - Operas, Drammi Giocosi, Don Giovanni

Mozart's Don Giovanni Giving Character's Character One of the most interesting challenges in operatic composition , is composing for all the specific characters. A composer has to distinguish between characters through his music. Jan can't sound like Fran , and Dan can't sound like Stan. Each character must have his or her own traits. Mozart's opera , Don Giovanni , provides us with many different characters to compare and contrast. One scene in particular lends itself to the comparison of Don Giovanni , Leporello , and The Commendator. Scene fifteen of Act two, places all three characters in close interaction with each other , making it easy to compare and find out how Mozart and his Librettist Lorenzo da Ponte brought them all to life. Lorenzo de Ponte's libretto provides the main character traits of Don Giovanni , Leporello , and The Commendatore. It gives an easy way of distinguishing between the characters. Don Giovanni is portrayed as being smart , charming , and brave , yet selfish , arrogant , womanizing , and pompous. We see all of these traits in the final dinner scene. These opposing traits set up a love hate relationship of Don Giovanni. Leporello on the other hand , is wimpy , subservient , nervous , and a bit dumb. He is often the butt of Don Giovanni's jokes , and is always being bossed around. He can be thought of as the comic relief of the opera. In the dinner scene we get a definite feeling of Leporello being a wimpy idiot. The Commendatore returns , after being slain by Giovanni , as a ghost. He is portrayed as being a mighty , powerful , and ominous. He tries to make Don Giovanni repent for all the terrible things he did. In the dinner scene he is truly a powerful being from beyond. His power is demonstrated when he sends Don Giovanni down to hell. The above character descriptions are what Lorenzo da Ponte set up for Mozart to compose his music to. We now can observer how Mozart used musical devices to give each character his own flavor. One area to compare is the rhythmic traits of each character's musical lines. Leporello's nervousness and fear in the dinner scene is exemplified through a very jumpy unsteady rhythmic vocal line. (ex 1) Mozart really makes his nervousness obvious by giving him notes no longer in value then a quarter note from m.425 to m.629. Mozart uses dotted eights to sixteenth notes to make his part especially disjointed. This creates the effect of someone shaking from fear as they are trying to speak. Mozart also uses a continuous triple pattern , which begins at measure 470 , to create a rambling effect. (ex 2) Leporello seems to have lost his sanity from fright of the ghost and is now babbling incoherently. Don Giovanni and the Commendatore have very different rhythmic vocal parts then Leporello. They are much more bold and brave then Leporello , so Mozart gives them a more solid rhythm. The Commendatore has the most stable part out of all of them. He has many whole and half notes. The stability of the rhythm adds to the confidence and power of his character. (ex 3) The only time his rhythm becomes quicker is when he is yelling at Don Giovanni to repent. Don Giovanni shares many similar rhythmic traits as the Commedatore , although it has a little more diversity. Don Giovanni shifts from being comfortable to uncomfortable throughout the dinner scene. Mozart appropriatly varies the speed of Don Giovanni's rhythm. An example of this occurs at measure 522. (ex 4) Previous to this measure, Don Giovanni has a stable rhythm with most words occurring on the strong beats. (ex 5) It abruptly changes to a short offbeat eight note figure. Rhythm is not the only musical area that Mozart crafts specifically for each character. He also uses certain melodic lines for each character. The Commendatore's melodic lines are the most striking. He often has huge leaps in his part , giving the listener a full dose of the impeding force he is. The space creates a feeling of something bigger and more powerful then a