"Don Giovanni."[ 70 ] At the conclusion of the first finale everything went wrong; Garcia, who was playing Don Giovanni, exerted himself in vain to keep the singers and orchestra in time and tune, until at last, sword in hand, he came forward and, commanding silence, exclaimed that it was a shame so to murder a masterpiece. They began again, collected themselves and took pains, and the finale came happily to an end.[ 71 ] The applause of the public renewed Da Ponte's youth; he recounts the satisfaction with which he heard the assurance of a friend, whose custom it was to go regularly to sleep at the opera, that such an opera as that would keep him awake all night.[ 72 ] "Don Giovanni" brought him still further good fortune; he placed his unexpectedly large profits obtained therefrom in the lottery, and for the first time drew a prize.[ 73 ] "Don Giovanni," once having made its way, was soon unanimously pronounced first among all, Mozart's operas; he was said to have declared that he wrote THE LIBRETTO. it not at all for Vienna, a little for Prague, but mostly for himself and his friends.[ 74 ] It is true that the libretto was formerly considered as a bungling fabrication only tolerated for the sake of the music; nevertheless, and especially after Hoffmann's clever vindication of its poetical meaning,[ 75 ] "Don Giovanni" gradually became the accepted canon of dramatic music, and the subject of wide-reaching discussion.[ 76 ] In "Figaro" Da Ponte had opened a new field to opera buffa, by representing the actual life of bourgeois society; in "Don Giovanni" he raised opera buffa in another direction to an altogether higher sphere.[ 77 ] The legend on which the opera is founded had reached the people through the tradition of centuries, and, familiar upon every stage in Europe, it held the same place in the popular mind as the myths of Greek tragedy. The facts, in spite of their wonderful and fantastic character, offered a good groundwork to the dramatist, and the main conception and essential elements of the situations and characters being given, the fullest freedom of construction and development was permitted in the treatment of the legend.[ 78 ] Whether the legend current in Seville DON GIOVANNI. of Don Juan Tenorio,[ 79 ] who invited to supper the statue of a warrior slain by him in a duel, and who, warned in vain to repent, was doomed to everlasting perdition, is of ancient origin or not, would be difficult to determine from the contradictory accounts given of it.[ 80 ] It is said to have been performed in monasteries from an early date, adapted by an unknown writer with the title of "El Ateista Fulminado:"[ 81 ] the first authentic dramatic version of the story being that by Gabriel Tellez, contemporary of Lope de Vega, monk and prior of a monastery in Madrid. His active ecclesiastical life did not prevent his acquiring, under the name of Tirso de Molina, an honourable place in Spanish literature as a dramatic poet.[ 82 ] His "Burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de Piedra" belongs, according to Schack, both in design and workmanship to his most fugitive pieces, but contains portions which could only have been written by a poet of the first rank.[ 83 ] The plot is briefly as follows:—
First Day [The scene is laid in Naples].—The Duchess Isabella is having a parting interview with her lover, Duke Ottavio, when she discovers that Don Juan has stolen into her apartment in Ottavio's stead. Her cries for assistance bring the King, who gives Don Juan into the custody of his uncle, Don Pedro Tenorio, the Spanish TIRSO DE MOLINA'S "CONVIDADO DE PIEDRA." Ambassador; the latter, discovering his relationship with his prisoner, allows him to escape, and denounces Don Ottavio to the King as Isabella's seducer. Don Pedro is thereupon commanded to arrest Don Ottavio, to whom, however, he declares that a man having been found with Isabella, she reported him to be Ottavio; the lover believes himself to be deceived and betrayed, and Don Pedro connives at his escape. [Coast scene in Tarragona.] Catalinon, Don Juan's servant, bears his shipwrecked master lifeless to shore, where they are discovered by Tisbea, a fisher-girl; Don Juan awakes to consciousness upon her bosom, and they fall violently in love with each other.[ 84 ] Their love-making is interrupted by a scene in which the Commandant, Don Gonzalo de Ulloa gives Don Albeso, King of Castile, an account of his diplomatic mission to Portugal. Then the story returns to Tisbea, who is deceived and deserted by Don Juan, and left to her passion of despair.
Second Day [The scene is in Seville].—Don Diego Tenorio, Don Juan's old father, acquaints the King with the crime which his son has committed in Naples against Isabella and Ottavio; the King banishes Don Juan from Seville until he shall make reparation by marrying Isabella. Ottavio enters and puts himself under the protection of the King, who promises to demonstrate his innocence in Naples, and to give him the hand of Donna Anna, Ulloa's daughter, and Don Juan's fiancée. Don Juan appears, greets Ottavio in friendly fashion, and enters into a long conversation with the Marquis de la Mota, wherein they discuss the beauties of the day like the regular roués they are; finally the Marquis declares his love for Donna Anna. He has no sooner departed than a note is brought to Don Juan to be conveyed to the Marquis; he opens it, and finding that in it Donna Anna appoints an interview, determines to keep the appointment himself; and he acquaints De la Mota, who returns, with the invitation, but names a later hour. He is as indifferent to his father's sentence of banishment as to his repeated exhortations, and upon the arrival of the Marquis to serenade Donna Anna, he borrows his mantle, ostensibly to enable him to visit one of his many sweethearts, but really that he may gain access to Donna Anna herself. Discovering the deceit, she cries for help; her father stops Don Juan's way with drawn sword, and falls by his hand. The murderer flies; De la Mota enters for the rendezvous; the King, hurrying in with his guards, takes him for the murderer, and delivers him to judgment, commanding a magnificent funeral for the Commandant, and the erection of a monument in his honour. [Country scene.] Patricio is celebrating his wedding with Aminta, when Don Juan, journeying through, mingles with the guests, and placing himself close to the bride, excites the jealousy of the bridegroom.
Third Day.—Don Juan prevails upon the jealous Patricio to renounce DON GIOVANNI. Aminta by falsely representing that she was formerly seduced by him, and had summoned him to interrupt the wedding; he gains the consent of her father by means of a solemn promise of marriage, and after a long resistance, Aminta gives way. [The Sea-coast.] Isabella, arriving at the King's summons for her espousals with Don Juan, falls in with Tisbea, who complains of Don Juan's treachery, and repairs with Isabella to Seville to seek justice from the King. [Seville.] Don Juan, informed by Catalinon of how his victims are united to revenge themselves on him, sees the statue erected to the Commandant, with an inscription calling for vengeance on his murderer. This rouses his haughty insolence; he plucks the statue by the beard, and invites it to supper, that it may execute his vengeance. While Don Juan is entertaining his followers at table, the statue appears, to the consternation of all but Don Juan, and remains silent until the meal is over. Left alone with Don Juan, the Commandant invites him to supper in the chapel, and he accepts the invitation, after repressing an involuntary shudder. [The Palace.] The King promises Don Diego that he will create Don Juan Count of Lebrija, and bestow Isabella upon him, at the same time pardoning the Marquis at Donna Anna's request, and uniting the two in marriage. Don Ottavio requests the King's permission to fight a duel with Don Juan, his father proposing to judge between the two; the King commands a reconciliation. As he goes out, Aminta enters with her father, to acquaint the King with her claims on Don Juan's hand, and Ottavio promises her his support. [The Street.] Don Juan, pardoned by the King, and on the point of wedding Isabella, prepares to keep his appointment with the Commandant, and enters the church where Ulloa has spread a meal for him and Catalinon. The dishes contain scorpions and snakes, the wine is gall and verjuice, and the table music is a penitential psalm. After the meal, the Commandant grasps Don Juan's hand with a grip which cannot be shaken off;[ 85 ] "Thou art summoned to the eternal judgment-seat" exclaims the Commandant; "thy reward shall be fitted to thy deserts." Don Juan falls down lifeless and sinks below with the statue. [The Palace.] The King wishing to see the nuptials celebrated, Isabella, Aminta, and Tisbea come forward to make good their claims to Don Juan's hand, and the Marquis reveals the treachery practised on him by Don Juan. The King is in the act of promising justice, when Catalinon enters and makes known Don Juan's dreadful end. Thereupon Ottavio and Isabella, De la Mota and Donna Anna, Patricio and Aminta, are severally united, and "the story of the Marble Guest comes to an end."
TIRSO DE MOLINA'S "CONVIDADO DE PIEDRA."
The drama, necessarily, in this rapid sketch, stripped of all the elegance and brilliancy of its poetical rendering, bears to an extraordinary degree the stamp of the time and nation to which it belongs. The freedom and unreserve with which the various love intrigues are treated and described are certainly peculiar to the age, and the story is distinguished by a dash of chivalric bravery all its own; the audience, while recognising a faithful representation of their own state of morals, were little inclined to take umbrage at the summary punishment of the sinner before them.[ 86 ] This point is, indeed, emphasised by various observations made in a truly catholic spirit; for instance, when Don Juan says to his stony guest, after having mockingly invited him to sup: "What will'st thou, vision, ghost? Dost thou suffer still the pains of purgatory? Dost thou demand satisfaction? What is thy will? I pledge my word to do as thou com-mandest. Why hast thou left God's throne? Do thy sins cause thee still to wander?" The effect is greatly heightened again by the reply of the statue when Don Juan is about to light him out: "Let be; God lights my path." And when Don Juan sees that all is over, he begs for a confessor, and the statue answers, "Too late, too late is thy contrition!" and Don Juan falls dead. The intricate plot is very unequally treated, and so indeed are also the characters. Among the female characters, Tisbea as a type of passion, and Aminta as a type of naïve simplicity, are both attractive and original; and among the men Don Juan, boldly and freely sketched, and his servant Catalinon, the inevitable "Gracioso" of the Spanish drama, are most remarkable. Catalinon in particular is treated with moderation and delicacy; neither his cowardice, his moralising, nor his wit is brought too prominently forward, and he always appears as the shadow of his master. Even in the spectre scenes he fails to rise to any grandeur of character. The influence of Spain upon the Italian drama[ 87 ] necessarily DON GIOVANNI. brought Tirso's "Don Juan" to Italy. According to Ricco-boni, it first appeared upon an Italian stage soon after 1620.[ 88 ] The first printed translation known is that by Onofrio Giliberti, entitled "ü Convitato di Pietra," performed in 1652 at Naples; others followed with the same title by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini (1670) and Andrea Perucci (1678);[ 89 ] the subject was familiar on the Italian stage, and unfailingly popular.[ 90 ]
The Italian dramatic company, who were naturalised in Paris at the theatre of the Hötel de Bourgogne, were accustomed to appoint one of their number to arrange the plan of the pieces which they performed, but the actual performance was improvised. In this fashion they played an improvised version of Giliberti's "Convitato di Pietra," which had an extraordinary run.[ 91 ] The chief situations of the Spanish drama, much simplified and coarsened, are compressed into five acts, and Arlecchino, who appears here as Don Juan's servant, is brought into the foreground and made the mouthpiece of a great deal of very questionable badinage:—
The first act represents Isabella's seduction in Naples. Don Pedro, her father and Don Juan's uncle, agrees with her to denounce Ottavio, her lover, as her seducer, which causes the latter to take flight.[ 92 ] In the second act Don Juan and Arlecchino swim to shore [ 93 ]
THE ITALIAN "CONVITATO DI PIETRA."
The third act shows Ottavio in great favour at the court of Castile, on the point of marriage with Donna Anna. He is attended by Pantaloon, who carries on the usual by-play with Arlecchino. Don Juan intercepts the letter in which Donna Anna summons Ottavio, steals in to her, Arlecchino keeping watch outside, and slays the Commandant, her father, who surprises them. In the fourth act Donna Anna demands justice from the King; a reward of 6,000 thalers is placed upon the head of the murderer, and Arlecchino is greatly tempted to gain it, which gives rise to much jesting between him and Pantaloon. In the fifth act Don Juan is discovered before the statue of the Commandant, which he mocks. Arlecchino is made to invite it to supper, whereupon it nods, and, upon Don Juan's repetition of the invitation, answers him in words. Don Juan's supper gives opportunity for much comic display of greediness and cunning on the part of Arlecchino, continuing even after the appearance of the Commandant, who invites Don Juan and departs. The King, made acquainted with Don Juan's crimes, commands him to be seized and brought to justice. Before escaping he keeps his appointment with the Commandant in the church, and is dragged below by the spectre. The closing tableau shows Don Juan burning in hell, and expressing his torment and his remorse:—