From: coren@speed.osf.org (Robert Coren)
Subject: Re: Don Giovanni
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 15:24:33 GMT

In article <1993Jan22.035502.17274@Princeton.EDU>, roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig) writes:
> In article <1993Jan21.233322.8586@osf.org> coren@speed.osf.org (Robert Coren) writes:
> >I think it's pretty clear that he never gets it on with anyone during
> >the course of the opera. This includes Donna Anna in the beginning; I
> >see no reason to dispute her assurance that she managed to fend him
> >off.
> 
> Well, why don't we hear her cry out earlier?  She only makes a noise
> when it becomes obvious there are people around.  And how far had things
> really gone when she found out?

We don't know how far away her bedroom is from the stage. Her report
to Ottavio says or implies that she screamed as soon as she could.

> 
> Also, note the comic bit where Ottavio says he can breathe again once
> she tells him she wasn't violated -- as opposed to him worrying about
> anything else, like, did he hurt her, and how about the fact that
> daddy's dead.  
I've never been able to decide whether or not Ottavio's narrowness of
focus was *intended* (by Mozart or da Ponte) to be funny. I agree that
it's moderately appalling, in the scene preceding "Or sai chi
l'onore", that her "honor" is of more concern to him than her safety
-- although, to be fair, it seems that she feels the same way (why
else would she have *pursued* her attacker?).

> He keeps proposing throughout the opera, and she finally
> tells him to check out for a year...or fifty...

Indeed, I have always associated that last duet with a line from _The
Yeomen of the Guard_, where Phoebe reassures Wilfred: "We will be wed
in a year -- or two -- or three, at the most."

> 
> A guy named Moberly once wrote a book about Mozart operas in which
> he argued that Don G actually got laid *seven* times during the opera.

Really? *During* it? I'd be interested in elaboration.

> 
> >It seems pretty clear that he *did* get it on with Elvira sometime in
> >the past (I've heard of, but never seen, productions that at least
> >imply that she is pregnant by him). 
> 
> Not bad, considering it was, what, last thursday that he split?

Do we know how long ago it was? Couldn't "Ah che mi dice mai" be
interpreted to indicate that she's been trying to locate him for
months? And it's pretty clear that he's surprised to see her the first
time.

> 
> >On the other hand, one could also
> >play it that their "relationship" was never actually consummated, and
> >this is what has made her so crazy.
> 
> In which case, however, he'd still be chasing her, not the other way
> around.

Not if the reason was that he succeeded in winning her "favor", but
then was unwilling or unable to perform, and decided to leave town
instead.


> No, she's the crazy one, so daffy that she sings baroque
> music "Ah, fuggi il traditor."

Well, "contemporary" music ("Non ti fidar") didn't seem to have
worked, so she decided she needed to try something more
"authoritative". No, the "craziness" is her obsession in following him
wherever he goes, and not being able to decide whether she wants love
or revenge or both.

> 
> >As for Leporello's list... well, all Leporello has to go on is what
> >Giovanni has told him, right?
> 
> Who do you suppose has been changing the sheets all these years?

Would this be Leporello's job? Maybe at home, but not in all those
inns, ladies' houses, back alleys...