Mozart's 🎼 Don Giovanni

Mozart's Don Giovanni

Complete Opera
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Mozart - Don Giovanni (1787)
With double subs It-Eng

Comment by: Agapò te Musikè 2

WITTICISM, PUNS, AND OTHER AMENITIES… 

It's a shame that subtitles often miss so many subtleties of Da Ponte’s libretto, so many allusions, and nuances that only an Italian can grasp! 

For example, in the opera's opening scene, Don Giovanni and Leporello sing at the same time almost the same expression (0:10:07), but employing the verb “precipitar(e)” in two different acceptations, often confused: Don Giovanni does not fear at all his own downfall… it’s Leporello who is afraid to suffer something harmful, while Don Giovanni is justifying to himself whatever misdeed he is ready to commit, as being compelled to, with hypocritical rhetoric… And actually, shortly thereafter he will kill Donna Anna’s father, and again will claim that his victim had it coming! The poetic witticism of putting two different acceptations of the same verb near each other is repeated in the first scene of the II act (1:37:00). It’s striking that someone should “make love” (“fare all’amor”) beneath a window (1:50:13). 

But this idiom has shifted in meaning over time in both languages: nothing to do with the present meaning: at that time, it meant “to woo”, “to court”. Ignoring the possible meaning hidden behind the words and overlooking the libretto’s indications often could prove misleading, as shown by the common misunderstanding of the duettino “Là ci darem la mano”. Here correctly, initially Zerlina sings toward the audience, her backs on Don Giovanni, thinking out loud, trying to decide what to do. Her aside “Quick, I’m no longer strong” is not meant to urge the seducer, but amounts to saying: “Somebody help me at once! I’m afraid my strength is failing ”. This last (half-hearted) hint at resistance is shaken at the prospect of elevating her own station through marriage and (pretty comically) finally overcome when the Don explicitly promises to improve her lot… (so much for pitying Masetto!) It really isn't about romance, on either side! It’s rather a tug of war between two different cunnings. And the words with which Don Giovanni mocks Zerlina’s expectations are not accidental. “There we shall give each other our hands” is not just an invitation to “hold hands”: he intends to evoke the ritual “join your right hands” at the exchange of the wedding vows. But “to give one’s hand”, besides to swear or to seal a vow, is done to confirm a generic agreement; “darsi la mano”, as “to shake hands” intended, binds a bargain... Similarly “there you will tell me yes” patently would lead Zerlina to foresee the wedding declaration of consent, her “I do”. But surely Don Giovanni has in mind another kind of consent… 

At the end, Don Giovanni and Zerlina are going to “ristorar le pene”, “to redress”, “to reward” (with marriage, or so Zerlina believes) the sufferings endured by their innocent love... Less innocent is the pun: it seems to wink at us: definitely the two don't mean the same thing! It could approximately be rendered… (0:46:26) 

But how tricky it is to… “restore” such tricks!