Patrick Bade
Don Giovanni, Part 2

Patrick Bade - Don Giovanni, Part 2

- Thank you, Judy. So we are up to scene three of “Don Giovanni.” And Don Giovanni is about to throw a party. And he introduces the scene with the famous “Champagne” aria which I would describe as a short, testosterone crazed, outburst. This has to be sung with the maximum of bravura and panache. And for this I’ve chosen the great, Ezio Pinza. He was the most famous Don Giovanni in the 1930s and 40s. And he was a very handsome man with a very handsome voice too. And he hardly needed to act a part of Don Giovanni. He was, by all accounts, Don Giovanni in real life. Now, as you’ll gather from the text, the party is of course just a ploy for seducing yet more young women and he hopes to add another 10 of them to his list over the night. Now, Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Donna Elvira, bent on revenge, bent on catching Don Giovanni. They arrive masked. And of course, in opera if you wear a mask, nobody can recognise you, not even your husband and wife. So in amongst all this kind of frenzied jollification and activity, we have one of those sublime moments of calm reflection which are so characteristic of Mozart’s operas. “The Trio of the Masks,” when they pray to God for protection in their cast. Many years ago, when I first started working for the Jewish Cultural Centre, I attended a conference at the St. John’s Wood Synagogue where the great Ernst Gombrich spoke. And in his talk, he said, “That the most beautiful sounds that he’d ever heard in his life where this trio in a performance given at Salzburg in 1937, conducted by Bruno Walter.”

Well, I wrote him a letter after that talk. And I told him that the very performance that he had heard survived, in a radio broadcast. And I made a copy of that performance and I sent it to him. And he sent me a very charming letter and invited me to go and see him. And I did. And I had wonderful conversations with him which I shall never forget, which really enriched my life. But interestingly, he never mentioned the recording I’d sent to him. And I suspect that probably hearing performance again after more than half a century, that somehow it maybe didn’t live up to his memory. But here is a very beautiful performance of it. Now let me see. Where is my little? Ah here it is. Yes. Now as always, the details of all the performances I play are on the list that was sent to you with the PowerPoint with your invitation this morning. Now, there follows a very complex scene. It’s complex musically, and it’s complex dramatically with various strands of plot happening simultaneously. There is Don Giovanni trying to seduce Zerbinetta. And commentary from various other characters from the three members of the “Trio of the Masks.” And it’s complex musically because you have bands on stage playing at the same time as the orchestra in the orchestra pit. And this scene reaches a climax when we hear offstage screams from Zerbinetta who’s trying to fight off Don Giovanni who was trying to rape her. And then Don Giovanni appears on stage dragging Leporello and accusing him of the attempted rape. But everybody turns on Giovanni and they corner him. But somehow in all the confusion he manages to escape. But of course, he hasn’t learned any lessons at all.

He’s completely incorrigible. So in the next scene, we find him again with Leporello. Leporello is pretty annoyed with him, but Don Giovanni manages to persuade him to continue in his service and to aid and abet in his plots to seduce women. And this time he’s trying to seduce the maid of Elvira and he persuades Leporello to swap hats with him. And again, if you, in a Mozart opera, if you swap a hat with somebody, you assume their identity. And he gets Leporello, who’s wearing Don Giovanni’s hat to take off Elvira while he attempts to seduce her maid by singing a serenade under her window. This is another one of the most famous pieces in the opera. And this time, I’m going to play you a recording with Cesare Siepi, who inherited the mantle of Pinza. He was the Don Giovanni of the 1950s and 60s. And there are numerous recordings of him both commercial and live. And I’ll be interested to know what you think of him. My great friend Mike in Munich, who’s got immense knowledge of singers and singing doesn’t like him. He finds the voice to cavernous. But he certainly had the essential quality for the role which is the ability to seduce. It’s a very dark voice. It’s a bass voice rather than a baritone voice with a rather velvety quality to it. But I remember attending a public interview with the great soprano Sena Jurinac, who on many occasions sang both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira to the “Don Giovanni” of Cesare Siepi. And she would’ve been in her late 70s at the time. But when his name came up she was just like a young girl. She was gushing with enthusiasm about his attractiveness and how wonderful he was in this role. In fact, he fails to seduce Elvira’s maid. He doesn’t really have a very good track record in the course of the opera. In fact, none of his attempted seductions work during the opera. But in this case, it’s because Zerlina’s boyfriend Masetto comes along and is also taken in by the disguise. And Don Giovanni, disguised as Leporello, beats him up and leaves him lying in the street.

Along comes Zerlina, and she finds her boyfriend moaning on the ground. And she sings this song to cheer him up and make him feel better which ends with the words , touch me here and she takes her hand to her breast. So I’m going to play another historic recording. This is Elizabeth Schumann, who I played to you a couple of weeks ago. This is very typical of its period, again with a lot of very winsome use of portamento, sliding from one note to the next. And of rubato, that’s the pulling about of the rhythm. Now, Leporello has led off Elvira. And of course, he’s now trying to escape from her. She still thinks he’s Don Giovanni because he’s wearing the wrong hat. And then in the semi-darkness, they bumped into first of all, Ottavio and Anna, and then Zerlina and Masetto, who are all out searching for Don Giovanni because they want to wreak revenge on him. And Elvira, convinced that Leporello is Don Giovanni, she’s saying, “Oh he’s my husband, . Please have mercy. Please have mercy.” And he is also whining that, “Please have mercy on me.” Which should have alerted that despite the hat, this is not Giovanni. And they say, “No, no, no. We are not going to have mercy on him.” And then of course, Leporello lifts off the hat and they’re all shocked to discover that it’s, they say, “Oh it’s Leporello.” Now and this is a very complex ensemble with six voices and a lot of things going on. I’ve already talked about how wonderful these very complicated ensemble are in the mature Mozart operas. I’d like you… I haven’t got the text of this, unfortunately. I’ve only got a French version here with me in Paris. But I’d like you to listen to what’s going on into the orchestra. You’ll hear when Anna and Ottavio arrive, because there’s a key change and there’s a very broad, dignified melody that is telling you that these are very noble and dignified people.

That was my big objection to the Calixto Bieito production at Covent Garden, who made them seem such crass and ghastly characters. The music was telling you something else. And then of course, Masetto and Zerlina, they come along. They have a different kind of music. That characterises them. They’re good people, but they’re people of a lower order. And then there is this wonderful moment when Leporello takes off his hat. And it’s a bit like the moment when the Countess reveals herself at the end of “The Marriage of Figaro.” You have a series of key changes that express the surprise and astonishment of all the other characters. This is Leporello. Key change and entry of Ottavio and Anna. This is where they bump into one another. Elvira begging for the life of Giovanni. Leporello begging. Takes his hat off. So Elvira left alone is devastated. She realises that she’s been duped and betrayed yet again. And in this aria, “Mi tradi quell” she expresses her anger and her humiliation. It’s a very, very difficult aria. It’s a real virtuoso piece. As I said, in some ways, Elvira is quite a thankless part. She’s really put through the mill vocally by Mozart. But she, it depends I suppose with a really great singer she can come out with a certain dignity. And this is the wonderful Lisa Della Casa. And she and Schwarzkopf between them, really owned this part in the post-war period. Now, that aria was written for the Vienna premier. It wasn’t in the original Prague premier.

It was apparently the soprano who was singing Elvira said to Mozart that she wanted something to show off her technique. And she certainly got it because if any soprano has any weaknesses in her technique, we any problems with intonation for instance, that is an aria that will show them up, show up those weaknesses. In the next scene, we meet up again with Don Giovanni and Leporello. And they meet up in a graveyard with a monument that has been erected to the Commendatore that Don Giovanni murdered in the first scene of the opera. And there is quite a long conversational recitative between Leporello and Don Giovanni. Which I said, once again test these very specific skills that you need for recitative. It has to be lively, and conversational and very rapid and you’ve got to have really a perfect command of the Italian language. Now in this scene, Don Giovanni describes how having been chased off from Elvira’s house he eventually does find somebody to have sex with him and he’s of course wearing Leporello’s hat. So this poor woman thinks that she’s actually spending the night and having sex with Leporello, when she’s actually been with Don Giovanni. And she murmurs loving endearments to Leporello through their lovemaking. So Don Giovanni tells this to Leporello, who’s rather alarmed, he thinks it actually might have been his wife. And Don Giovanni thinks this is hilarious. So he bursts out laughing. A good, natural, convincing laugh is I think another absolutely essential prerequisite for a convincing Don Giovanni. It mustn’t be a giggle. It mustn’t be a hearty guffaw. This is not a carry-on movie that we are in. But it’s got to sound natural.

And so this laughter seems to awake the statue on the monument. And we have ghostly musics, ominous ghostly music. And the statue speaks to Don Giovanni and Leporello. And it says, “He who laughs now will cease to laugh by dawn.” So Don Giovanni orders the terrified Leporello to invite the statue to dinner that night. And Leporello does so. One of the remarkable features of “Don Giovanni,” I’ve stressed this already, is the way it combines comedy and tragedy. And apart from Puccini, I can’t think of any other composer who can constantly change moods, keep you on the edge of your seat by changing moods through the opera. And we see this very much in the final scenes of the opera. We have quite a lengthy scene, where actually I suppose it’s isn’t that far away from a carry-on movie. It’s real knock about comedy where Don Giovanni, who’s actually having dinner all on his own, poor sod, served by Leporello. And Mozart has a lot of fun with this scene, quoting himself and making fun of himself.

There Leporello actually sings bits of Figaro’s aria from “The Marriage of Figaro.” So he’s referencing himself. And there’s a lot of comedy to be had with Leporello who’s hungry trying to steal food from the the table and Don Giovanni making fun of him. Then in comes Elvira in a hysterical state. She’s on the point of hysteria, actually throughout the whole opera. And she begs Don Giovanni to repent and he just laughs her off. And in despair she leaves. And as she’s leaving off-stage we hear her give a terrified scream. And this is the moment for the arrival of the statue And get huge switch of mood. And we get these terrifying chords in the key of D minor that had opened the overture to the opera. And the statue comes in and orders Don Giovanni to repent. He refuses. And we have a tremendous build-up to a great climax with one of the most thrilling trios in opera with three dark, deep voices. It’s either, well, either baritones or basses, can be either in this scene. We have Leporello cringing in a corner, and terrified mutterings, Don Giovanni’s defiant proclamations, and eventually the statue reaches out his hand to Don Giovanni and takes Don Giovanni’s hand and drags him down to hell. Now, that’s certainly one of the most thrilling climaxes of any opera ever written. The problem is that the final scene of the opera after that can seem like a terrible anti-climax.

Certainly Gustav Mahler thought so. When it was performed in Vienna, at the beginning of the 20th century, Mahler stopped the opera at that point. I don’t think any modern conductor would dare interfere with Mozart’s intentions in quite such a brutal way, even if the theatre directors do. But so in the final scene, the remaining six characters come on and they it’s very attractive, very delightful, very joyous music and they point the moral of the piece. Elvira says, “She’s going to take herself off to a convent.” Leporello says, “He’s going to find himself a better master.” And Anna declares that, “She is not ready to marry yet.” She’s going to put off her marriage for another year and so on. And then all of them point the rather trite moral, that sinners end as they begin. Right. Well, let’s see what questions and comments we have.

Q&A and Comments:

“Cape Town University opera plus orchestra took ‘Don Giovanni’ and ‘Tosca’ on tour to South Africa and southwest Africa in the 1960s. I was a student playing clarinet in the orchestra bit. Wonderful experience it was.” I bet it was. And I would love to talk about “Tosca.” I’m sure I will sooner or later.

Judith, “One of my lecturers on Mozart’s were saying, ‘All Mozart’s work is like an opera and that he wanted above all to be an opera composer and the arias and duets and quartets, et cetera all done in his orchestral music.’” Yeah, that’s an interesting idea that there is an operatic tendency perhaps in all his work.

This is Monique, “Siepi.” You like Siepi. “He’s just fine. Yes, the voice is dark wine, but wonderfully smooth. It’s good to have a heavier voice to contrast with the lighter ones.” There is a slight problem, I think though with the contrast between Don Giovanni and Leporello. You don’t want them necessarily sounding too alike one another.

“Just a note on a number of-” This is from Ron Bick, “Just a note on the number of women Leporello says Don Giovanni has had sex with. I take it as an exaggeration for dramatic effect. But then I recall that the famous American basketball star, Wilt Chamberlain claimed in a book he wrote ‘To have slept with 20,000 women.’” My God! When did he ever find time for anything else? “Never later saying it was an exaggeration. Men are strange.” Yes. And he says, “He is a man, but we’re all different. Perhaps this says something about where and how we find, or do not find satisfaction in life.” Well, I suspect that Wilt Chamberlain and Don Giovanni didn’t find much satisfaction and that was the problem.

“The voice of any Don Giovanni depends in part on the voices surrounding him.” Very good point, Monique. I agree with you, absolutely.

“Can I comment on Eberhard Waechter?” I think he’s a fine artist. I mean, I’d rather have an Italian, if you can get one. But I think he does a pretty good job. I only heard him once right at the end of his career in Vienna. I heard him as Sharpless in “Madama Butterfly” and that was a disappointment. I think he’d really lost his best qualities by that point.

“Please comment on the various director’s choices and staging of ‘The Stone Guest.’” Yes. I’m just trying to think of all the ones I’ve seen. And also of course, the going down to hell. That was a problem I think in the Joseph Losey film, it was probably the one really unconvincing moment that he didn’t go down to hell in that thing. I suppose yes. I mean, a lot of times the Commendatore is kind of bulked up like the Tin Man and has to move very slowly and clankly.

This is Joan saying, “She agrees with Mahler, that the opera should end when he’s dragged down to hell.” And I sort of sympathise with that view. Though I don’t suppose anybody could get away with it these days.

“There’s an interesting recording of the final scene where Hvorostovsky sings both the roles of Don-” That’s interesting. ‘Cause Chaliapin was very naughty like that he used to like to sing duets with himself. I mean, I think that’s showing off actually, to tell you the truth.

“Is Sharon actually referring to the Russian opera actually called, 'The Stone Guest’?” Yes. I don’t know that is. What’s the, I forgot the name of the composer now. I do have a recording of that. Dargomyzhsky, isn’t it? Dargomyzhsky who wrote, “The Stone Guest.”

“Pinza has a very infectious laugh.” He certainly does. And he’s even better in live performances. Of course it’s quite difficult to pull off an infectious laugh in a studio in front of … that you can have in a live performance.

“Not sure that Siepi has the ease of a libertine that Pinza has.” Look nobody, to be compared with Pinza. I’m sorry, who can compare with him? He’s really in a class of his own. And Herbert, my friend Mike in Munich would certainly agree with what you said. “That dark wine indeed, but doesn’t the role call for a more sparkling champagne spirit?”

Monique, “Mahler was wrong.” Joan Lessing, “At the Met a few years ago I was sitting very close to the stage when the whole floor erupted in flames to consume Don G. It was seriously warm for the several rows of the audience.” I do love art and opera, that’s true.

Q: “If you had to rate one above the other?”

A: Oh, I don’t know. It’d be so hard. I don’t think I could. I really don’t think I could.

“Can I please outline how in most instances-”

It’s so very, I couldn’t now. I mean that’s a lecture in itself. And it’s very different of course with different composers and in different periods. So it’s too complicated, I think, to try and address, except if one did a whole lot of the lecture upon it.

“‘Cosi’ also has an ending that should have ended before.” “Cosi,” I’m going to be struck by lightning. It’s not one of my favourite operas. Although, I think it does contain some of the most sublime music ever written for opera. I just find it so irritating and so unfunny that I can hardly sit through it.

Dennis saying, “I meant the death scene not the final add-on scene.” Yes, I got that. is learning Italian.

Martin his favourite opera. “Finale influenced finale’s of ‘Fidelio’ and ‘Falstaff.’” Yes, it certainly did. I’m not totally happy with the end of “Fidelio” actually. But “Falstaff” of course is wonderful. Martin, “Almost impossible to produce really well.” Yes, that I did make that point last time that you you need such a large number of really good singers and there’s nearly always a fly in the ointment. What can you say?

“Do mention the Peter Schickele parody of ‘The Stoned Guest’?” I don’t know that, but it sounds very promising.

Q: “Have there been many modern stagings?

A: Yes, there are countless modern stagings of "Don Giovanni.” You know, it’s strange Puccini, you know at Covent Garden, I think there have only been two or three stagings of “La boheme” in 120 years. But “Don Giovanni”, they seem to feel the need to do a new production every couple of years.

This is Sue saying, “She would like some more modern Don Simon Keenleyside. You might have a try. Who else?” I dunno.

“Thomas Hampson.” Gerald Finley is a wonderful singer. A really terrific singer. He’s one of the singers I most admire in the world today. But I don’t have a recording of him doing “Don Giovanni.”

This is Barbara, “Apropos Judah’s comment, most music conservatories make their instrumental students sing and it’s so important to them.” Yes. And of course Toscanini, if you listen to any orchestral rehearsals of Toscanini he’s constantly shouting at the orchestra . Sing. And he used to try and get the orchestra to phrase, he used to tell him to listen to his favourite tenor, Aureliano Pertile, as an example of how they should phrase.

This is Mike saying, “He saw ‘Cosi’ done as a tragedy. Basically nobody gets what they want.” That’s interesting. I might like it better.

“‘Ascanio in Alba.’” Now, I’m just trying to think who wrote that. Is that, is that an early Mozart opera? I don’t know it. The name is familiar, but I don’t know the opera.

“The painting to the left of my shoulder.” Is it that one? Which is actually, it’s a fake. It’s a fake Gioacchino that I painted because I had a real 17th century frame and it needed a 17th century painting to go in it. Unless it’s that, which is a relief sculpture that it’s actually a version of the sculpture on the front of the Folies-Bergere.

And Judith saying, “There is a ‘Don Giovanni’ with Gerald Finley.” Gerald Finley, a wonderful singer and a wonderful singing actor.

“Tom Allen who should get a nod as a modern Don.” And my friend Mike in Munich rates him very highly. “‘Deh Vieni’ of Gerald Finley.” Yes, we can all listen to that on YouTube.

“2003 Covent Garden staged ‘Don Giovanni’ and they used fire on the stage as well. We were sitting up in the gods and we could feel the heat of the fire up there. Very dangerous when you think of all the opera houses that have burned down over the years.”

Well, that seems to be it. Thank you all very, very much. I’m giving opera a miss for a while, although I’ll include some musical examples in my next lectures which will be about the cultural life of Vienna in the 19th and early 20th century.

So thanks everybody, and goodbye until Sunday.

• [Judy] Thank you, Patrick. Bye-bye everybody. Bye-bye.