Don Giovanni

JC Ryan

Professor Roundtree

ART 211

9/25/17

Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni truly is one of Mozart's masterpieces. Based on the historical and fictional character Don Juan, Don Giovanni follows the international womanizer as he gets into and out of trouble for his unruly escapades. Aided by Leporello, his servant and accomplice, he tricks and lies to those around him to weasel in and out of his deceptive efforts. In the end, however, Don Giovanni meets his fate when he is confronted by the Commendatore. Don Giovanni refuses to repent for his misgivings and deceptions, and is henceforth seized by demons and dragged below. Watching this opera helped me to understand the semi-destructive life of a libertine, how humor was integrated into classical operas, and why Don Giovanni has been considered a classic through the generations.

Considering my knowledge of the Opera, I would confidently say that audiences who saw Don Giovanni originally presented were probably amazed by Mozart’s mastery of music, amused by the creative characters, and fulfilled by the considerate moral ending of the story. Also being aware that it has been a classic for generations (Soren Kierkegaard, the father of existentialism, called it the greatest of all classical works and Gustave Flaubert named it “[one of the] finest things God ever made”) the initial viewing must have been monumental. I imagine Mozart was met with applause and praise, since this is one of the plays that immortalized him into the fabric of classical Opera history.

This piece is essential to the chronology of opera because of the themes, characters, and cultural embodiment of the play. It had a lasting popularity and for that reason a lasting influence on all the Operas that came after it. Many allusions are made the this Opera by other Operas, and many of the arrangements are borrowed by other Operas. In the historical context, Don Giovanni cannot be ignored. The way in which it mixes humor with tragedy, romance with manipulation; it simply cannot be beat.

Technologically, Don Giovanni made little use of it revolutionarily. But every opera requires some technological vigor. Specific to the version of Don Giovanni I watched on youtube, different camera angles gave a specific feeling to the consistency of the Opera. And the sets utilized clever eye-tricks to set the scenes. There was one part where Leporello had to pretend to be Don Giovanni to distract an ex-lover, but had to hide his face. Certain props and lighting were used to give this effect that, before advances in stage-lighting were made, would not have been possible. Also, the sound design was impeccable, as everything could be heard even when the actors seemed to be talking into each others bodies, away from the audience, or behind a wall.

If I were to make this into a videogame, I’d probably make it into a 17th century third-person open-world platformer, similar to the Assassin’s Creed games. The foremost reason for this being the setting, which is very similar to the setting of the first three games in the Assassin’s Creed series. In it, the player would play as Don Giovanni, who can battle enemies, climb buildings, and most importantly, seduce women. Fight scenes in the game would be coupled with extremely dramatic lighting, opera music, and cinematics.

The narrative would consist of Don Giovanni’s innocent-seeming nature and light-hearted jokes as he spends all his time killing people because of the trouble of his seductive endeavors. There would be a joke specifically referencing Leporello’s line: “He courts the elderly just to add them to his list [of conquests].” Leporello would act as a battle companion, similar to side characters in the Kingdom Heart games, and could be upgraded to serve different purposes in battle. Don Giovanni himself can be upgraded to serve different purposes, and gains experience to upgrade by seducing women in the world. There would be another character, probably Don Ottavio, who begrudgingly sells you weapons and armor throughout the game.

Each boss battle will have a woman to seduce as a reward. But Don Giovanni will only be successful the first time (to Donna Elvira, the woman he married at the beginning of the play). Every boss battle after that, when the boss is defeated, the woman thanks him, but then gets saved either by Donna Elvira, Don Ottavio, or something else. Don Giovanni becomes increasingly frustrated and will have to do side missions to earn experience. The final boss will be the statue of the Commendatore. Don Giovanni will seem to have defeated the statue, but at the end the statue will strike Giovanni as he falls. Giovanni dies, and is swarmed by demons. The game ends and after the credits the player can continue to explore the world controlling Leporello.

Don Giovanni was a very long play. But I can understand why it’s such a classic. Trying to isolate the play itself from all the ways our current culture has been influenced by it (thinking of all the likeable but tending towards immoral anti-heroes of today i.e. Batman) the Opera stands as a well executed, masterfully composed work of grand historical magnitude. The ambiguity of comedy and morality can be construed as insightful yet troubling. Because sometimes what is wrong can be masked by a very attractive deceit.