If you can’t make it to the Royal Opera House to see The Nutcracker this Christmas, you need not miss out. Opus Arte, the ROH’s multi-platform arts production and distribution company, is bringing The Nutcracker to cinema screens across the country, filmed in a high-definition recording from the Royal Opera House itself.

To promote the screenings Opus Arte has made a wonderful digital advent calendar for The Nutcracker. Enter your details (it just takes a few seconds) and you get daily clips of the opera throughout December. A neat idea and a delightful way to count down to Christmas.

Simon Keenleyside as Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House, London, 2008.

The character of Don Giovanni in Mozart’s opera personifies two contrasting aspects of the Enlightment:

1. The embodiment of liberty. Don Giovanni sees himself as exempt from the laws of state, society, culture and religion. In this sense he is the Enlightenment hero, an extreme example of the idea of liberty that marks the age.
2. The embodiment of social disruption. Here he is the destroyer of liberty in others. His moral liscentiousness leads him to ignore oaths and promises, break up relationships and marriages and disrupt the distinctions in status that hold society together.

The conflict between these complementary and contrasting aspects of Don Giovanni is what drives the drama.

Don Giovanni as Rebel Hero

The comic element of the opera is drawn from the first definition described above: Don Giovanni as the emobdiment of liberty.

We delight in Don Giovanni’s trickery and play and are amused by his antics. This side of his character coincides with what the German poet Friedrich Schiller (a contemporary of Mozart) promoted as a classical aesthetic that transends the duality of the rational/formal and the material/sensual. As Nicholas Till says in his excellent book Mozart and the Enlightenment:

[Schiller] characterised aesthetic freedom, famously, as play – a self-fulfilling activity which liberates the sensual from material determination, re-admitting it to the airy dance of the ideal. For Schiller the play-drive was the ultimate expression of the ‘purposeful purposelessness’ of aesthetic freedom.

In On the Aesthetic Nature of Man, Schiller tells us how we can achieve the classical ideal of aesthetic social order:

We are likely to find it, like the pure Church and pure Republic, only in a few chosen circles, where conduct is governed, not by some soulless imitation of the manners and morals of others, but by the aesthetic nature we have made our own.

In this respect Don Giovanni represents the Enlightenment ideal of political and social liberty. The refrain of ‘Vive la libertà’ which Giovanni, Leporello, Don Ottavio, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira sing together during the finale of Act 1 highlights the ambiguity of the term within the opera, but as Julian Rushton points out in Don Giovanni (Cambridge Opera Handbook), the political implications of ‘Viva la libertà’ were taken seriously enough by the Austrian censorship in the nineteenth century for it to be changed in Italy to ‘Viva la società’.

Another element of Giovanni’s character which enhances the idea of his heroic status is his complete lack of fear. He displays a super-human courage in the two key climaxes of the work:

• The Act 1 finale, where the five characters threaten him with the vengeance of heaven and he replies ‘My courage shall not fail me, though the powers of hell assail me.’
• The finale of Act 2, where he says ‘no man shall call me coward’ and refuses to repent and change his life even in the face of everlasting suffering.

It is worth bearing in mind that in the final scenes of the opera Giovanni’s fate is not sealed, and that he is offered the chance to repent and go to heaven rather than hell. His steadfast refusal here is almost Nietzschian in its conception of invididuality, and in his refusal to compromise the full realisation of his own nature. One is forced to admire Giovanni here, as Nicholas Till says:

With his desperate, defiant denial he becomes a triumphant yea-sayer, prepared to plead his values of individual freedom at the bar of heaven itself. In this moment, as the scene is written by Mozart, it is almost impossible not to identify with Don Giovanni and adopt him as some sort of existential rebel: a rebel whom Camus was to describe as ‘A man who says no: but whose refusal does not imply renunciation,’ and who prefers ‘the risk of death to a denial of the rights that he defends.’

Don Giovanni as Social Threat

But of course there is a dark side to Don Giovanni. He is a ‘harbinger of chaos’. His liscentiousness, his breaking of oaths and promises, his flouting of taste, convention and manners, and his dismissal of all social conventions threaten the fabric of society itself.

The first scene alone sees him attempting the rape of an aristocratic lady betrothed to another and then murdering her father. Major crimes against society and its institutions are committed by Giovanni within the first 15 minutes of the action (and what an opening!).

Later he attempts to break up the marriage of Zerlina and Masetto before it has begun, and commits an act of violence on Masetto when he seeks revenge. It is clear that this kind of extreme individuality cannot operate within society.

Don Giovanni manifests disruption thorugh the confusion of social hierarchy that his actions bring about. We know from Leporello’s famous catalogue aria that amongst his conquests he counts country wenches, burghers’ wives, lower gentry, baronesses, princesseses and ‘every shape of female figure, every class and every age’. During the course of the opera we see him attempt to seduce a lady, a maid and a peasant, representatives of all three social classes.

This social breakdown is highlighted in one of the most extraordinary musical moments of the opera. During the Act 1 finale three dances are played together: menuetto, follia and alemanna are superimposed on top of one another, each dance representing the separate classes of aristocrat, peasant and bourgeoisie. The combination of distinct types of music, in different metres, treads a fine line between the harmonious and the grotesque, and highlights the dangers of disrupting social structures.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don Giovanni: Hero or villain?

So which are we to take as the real Giovanni? Is he hero or villain? The answer has to be both, but this raises questions about the morality of the opera and what we should make of its ultimate meaning.

Nicholas Till makes a persuasive case for seeing Don Giovanni as a representative of the general artistic character, indeed an expression of Mozart himself, through what he calls ‘the subversive artistic spirit’.

Like Giovanni, the absolute artist remains uncommited to anything or anyone which will constrain his freedom; he breaks promises and defies threats. Like Giovanni, the artist must adopt chameleon disguises to penetrate into the world of others and assume that ‘negative capability‘ that Keats believed to be so important to the poet.

Mozart’s music is often effused with playfulness, not just in Don Giovanni but throughout his work. His Musical Joke, K.522, was written around the time he was writing Don Giovanni, and his love of dance forms is a clear indicator of the play drive in his music.

The Act 1 finale with its distorted dance themes takes on extra significance in this respect, as an expression not just of social disharmony but of Mozart’s skill as a composer. It demonstrates a virtuosic display of compositional skills to fit together three different dances, each in its own metre, and still produce music that makes sense as a whole (Mozart was later to elevate this technique to the level of the sublime with the remarkable fugal ending of his Jupiter Symphony).

Consider also this description of Mozart by Andreas Schachtner, a Salzburg trumpeter who knew Mozart and worked with him closesly (quoted in Mozart and the Enlightenment by Nicholas Till):

I think that if he had not had the advantage of good education which he enjoyed, he might have become the most wicked villain, so susceptible was he to every attraction, the goodness or badness of which he was not yet able to imagine.

As an artist Mozart expresses to us, through Giovanni, his own humanity. He thereby dramatises every human being’s desire to extend their individuality into the world and live life by their own rules.

At the same time we are made aware of the tensions between this expressive individuality and the social boundaries that help to keep these forces under control.

This video from San Diego Opera Talk series provides a useful analysis of the opera Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Nick Reveles talks through some of the dramatic and musical elements of the opera, providing insight into some of the themes of the work and the effects that Mozart and Da Ponte use to bring the characters alive and provide substance to the drama.

If you’re interested in the musical analysis, skip straight to 8 minutes 45 seconds. It’s not overly technical and doesn’t require musical knowledge to follow.

At 24 minutes and 15 seconds, Nick Reveles talks through the best recordings of the work on CD.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I like a mix of different approaches with my favourite classical works. For Don Giovanni, the opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, there are three clear choices, which critics (at least in the UK and Europe) unanimously highlight.

1. Don Giovanni: The Traditional Account

Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.

Don Giovanni performed by the Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini and issued on EMI (Amazon affiliate link). The wonderful cast includes Eberhard Wachter, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Dame joan Sutherland.

The Penguin Guide to Classical Music 2003/4 (2009 version available here) designates this as a ‘key recording’:

Sets the standard by which all other recordings have come to be judged. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, as Elvira, emerges as a dominant figure to give a distinctive but totally apt slant to this endlessly invigorating drama.

The Gramaphone Classical Music Guide 2005 (2009 version available here) also rates this highly:

Although this set is over 40 years olds, none of its successors is as skilled in capturing the piece’s drama so unerringly… one of the most apt casts every assembled for the piece.

2. Don Giovanni: The Live Period Instrument Version

Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Elliot Gardiner.

Don Giovanni performed by the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner and issued on Archiv (Amazon affiliate link).

The Penguin Guide calls it ‘a recording that sets new standards for period performance and vies with the finest of traditional versions’:

John Eliot Gardiner’s set is recorded mainly live, and the result is vividly dramatic, beautifully paced nad deeply expressive. The performance culminates in one of the most thrilling accounts ever recorded of the final scene, when Giovanni is dragged down to hell.

The Gramphone Guide is equally effusive:

For sheer theatrical elan complemented by the live recording, Gardiner is among the best, particularly given a recording that’s wonderfully truthful and lifelike.

3. Don Giovanni: The Classic

Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Josef Krips.

Don Giovanni performed by the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Josef Krips and issued on Decca (Amazon affiliate link).

I haven’t heard this myself, but the Penguin Guide gives this its highest honour, the coveted Rosette status:

Krips’s version, recorded in 1955 for the Mozart bicentennary, has remained at or near the top of the list of recommendations ever since. Its intense dramatic account of the Don’s disappearance into hell has rarely been equalled and never surpassed on CD. The finale to Act I is also electrifying. The reading is pretty age defying, full and warm, with a lovely Viennese glow which is preferable to many modern recordings.

If anyone has any other recommendations, please add them to the comments below.

Poster for the Toronto Opera production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, 2004.

The following links offer useful resources for analysis of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.

Analysis

• The Nowhere Man – the mystery of Don Giovanni, by Nicholas Lezard
• Mozart’s Don Giovanni: An Enlightenment Hero? by John Kerns
• Don Giovanni, man or idea, by Kenneth LaFave
• Søren Kierkegaard’s Interpretation of Mozart’s Opera Don Giovanni : An Appraisal and Theological Response by Dr. David Naugle [PDF]
• Don Giovanni at the Crossroads of Pleasure and Virtue, by Edmund J Goehring

Libretto

• Karader Classical Music: Don Giovanni (Italian)
• Opera Guide: Don Giovanni (Italian)
• Opera Guide: Don Giovanni (English translation)
• EMI Classics: Don Giovanni (German, Italian, English and French translations) [PDF]

Scores

• Don Giovanni by WA Mozart, Full Score, Edition (Plath/Rehm, 1968)
• Don Giovanni by WA Mozart: Piano-Vocal Score from William and Gayle Cook Music Library Indiana University School of Music

It takes a lot of work on the listener’s part to understand Wagner. I’ve been trying in vain for years, but I’ve recently made a kind of breakthrough.

The catalyst was a few intense listening sessions with Tristan and Isolde. With its mythological setting, ambiguous themes, overwhelming length and dense musical chromaticism it’s not an easy task. Perseverance paid off, though, and I feel Wagner’s masterwork is now fully under my skin. I highly recommend putting some time into it.

It also helps to have some guidance (is it possible to properly understand Wagner without some sort of guide?), and for this I can’t recommend enough Roger Scruton’s Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde.

One of the many insights is a fascinating discussion on Wagner’s attitude to mythology – a stumbling block for many frustrated Wagnerians. Here’s a key passage:

A myth, for Wagner, is not a fable or a religious doctrine but a vehicle for human knowledge. The myth acquaints us with ourselves and our condition, using symbols and characters that give objective form to our inner compulsions. Myths are set in the hazy past, in a vanished world of chthonic forces and magniloquent deeds. But this obligatory ‘pastness’ is a heuristic device. It places the myth and its characters before recorded time and therefore in an era that is purged of history. It lifts the story out of the stream of human life and endows it with a meaning that is timeless.

Scruton claims Wagner’s use of mythology is one of the great intellectual advances of modern times, and the inspiration for Freud’s idea of mythology as ‘a dramatization of deep and hidden truths about the human psyche’.

For me this helps to explain a lot of art that incorporates aspects of mythology in this way, from WB Yeats to JRR Tolkien.

The best witticisms in musical criticism are invariably about Wagner. Here are some choice quotes:

• Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.
  Edgar Wilson Nye
• One can’t judge Wagner’s opera ‘Lohengrin’ after a first hearing, and I certainly don’t intend hearing it a second time.
  Gioacchino Antonio Rossini
• Mr. Wagner has beautiful moments but awful quarters of an hour.
  Gioacchino Antonio Rossini
• I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws.
  Charles-Pierre Baudelaire
• I like Wagner’s music better than any other music. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without people hearing what one says. That is a great advantage.
  Oscar Wilde
• I can’t listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland.
  Woody Allen

On the other hand, there are many great men who rate him very highly indeed:

• Perhaps the greatest genius that ever lived.
  WH Auden
• There is Beethoven and Richard, and after them, nobody.
  Gustav Mahler
• Most of us are so helplessly under the spell of his greatness that we can do nothing but go raving about the theatre in ecstasies of deluded admiration.
  George Bernard Shaw

The Gramophone Good CD & DVD Guide 2005 praises the recording of Eugene Onegin conducted by Semyon Bychkov with the Orchestre de Paris and the baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky on Philips: ‘[They] make the finale the tragic climax it should be; indeed the reciting of this passage is almost unbearably moving. Bychkov illuminates every detail of the composer’s wondrous scoring with pointed delicacy and playing of the utmost acuity and beauty from his own Paris orchestra.’

The Penguin Guide To Compact Discs recommends Solti’s classic recording on Decca with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra. ‘Here, for the first time, the full range of expression in this most atmospheric of operas is superbly caught, with the Decca CDs vividly capturing every subtlety, including the wonderful off-stage effects.’ Gramophone says of the same recording: ‘A polished old warhorse, conducted by Solti with superlative warmth.’ There is a film version of the opera directed by Petr Weigl that uses this famous Solti recording as the soundtrack, lip-synced by actors on location. One to check out, although it’s had mixed reviews from critics – some think it’s a powerful approach, while others are put off by the jarring blend of opera’s grand musical gestures and the realism of modern film making.