“Don Giovanni”

Characters

DON GIOVANNI (a young and exceedingly licentious nobleman) — Baritone DONNA ANNA (daughter of the Commendatore, betrothed to Don Ottavio) — Soprano DON OTTAVIO — Tenor THE COMMENDATORE (Don Pedro) — Bass DONNA ELVIRA (a lady of Burgos abandoned by Don Giovanni) — Soprano LEPORELLO (Don Giovanni’s servant) — Bass MASETTO (a peasant, Zerlina’s fiancé) — Bass ZERLINA (a peasant girl) — Soprano CHORUS Peasants, servants, young women, musicians, demons

Overture

ACT ONE

Scene One

(She faints.) DON OTTAVIO Help my beloved, friends! Find and bring some smelling salts or some cordial! Do not delay! (The servants depart on their errand.) Donna Anna! My bride! My beloved! She is dying of grief! DONNA ANNA Ah! DON OTTAVIO She is coming to! (The servants return.) Help her up. DONNA ANNA My father! DON OTTAVIO Hide it, remove that object of horror from her gaze. (The servants carry away the body.) My beloved, be consoled! Take heart. DONNA ANNA Go away, cruel man, go away! Let me die, too, now that he is dead, oh God, he who gave me life!

Scene Two

A street near an inn. Early morning. Recitative DON GIOVANNI Come on now, hurry up. What do you want? LEPORELLO It's a very important matter. DON GIOVANNI I believe you. LEPORELLO Most important. DON GIOVANNI So much the better. Out with it. LEPORELLO Promise you won't become angry.

DON GIOVANNI I swear it on my honour, as long as you don't speak of the Commendatore. LEPORELLO Are we alone? DON GIOVANNI You can see that. LEPORELLO No one can hear us? DON GIOVANNI Come on! LEPORELLO May I tell you everything freely? DON GIOVANNI Yes. LEPORELLO Well then, my dear master, the life you are leading is that of a knave! DON GIOVANNI Rascal, you dare... LEPORELLO And your oath? DON GIOVANNI I know nothing about oaths. Keep quiet or I'll...

DONNA ELVIRA Wretch! Thus you mock my grief? Ah, you - (turning to address Don Giovanni) Good Heavens! The villain has fled! Alas, where could he be? Where? LEPORELLO Oh, let him go. He doesn't deserve to be worried over. DONNA ELVIRA The wretch tricked me, betrayed me... LEPORELLO Calm yourself! You are not, were not and will not be either the first or the last. Look: this fat little book is entirely full of the names of his sweethearts. Each town, each district, each countryside testifies to his affairs with women.

Scene Three

DON GIOVANNI Hurry, go with them. Take them at once to my villa. See that they are served chocolate, coffee, wines, and hams. Try to keep them all amused; show them the garden, the gallery, the rooms. Be sure that my dear Masetto is made happy. Do you understand? LEPORELLO I understand. Let's go! MASETTO Sir! DON GIOVANNI What is it? MASETTO Zerlina cannot stay here without me. LEPORELLO His Excellency will take your place, and he will know how to fill your shoes. DON GIOVANNI Oh, Zerlina is in the hands of a cavalier. Go on; she and I will come later. ZERLINA Go on, don't worry. I am in the hands of a cavalier. MASETTO And that means?

Recitative & Duettino DON GIOVANNI At last we are free, my dearest Zerlina, of that boor. Tell me, my dear, didn't I handle it neatly? ZERLINA Sir, he is my husband. DON GIOVANNI Who? That one? Do you suppose an honourable man, a noble cavalier, as I believe myself to be, could permit such a lovely little face, such sweet beauty to be stolen by a clumsy oaf? ZERLINA But, sir, I promised to marry him. DON GIOVANNI That kind of promise means nothing. You were not made to be a peasant girl. Another fate is called for by those roguish eyes, those lovely lips, those slender, perfumed fingers, so soft to the touch and smelling of roses. ZERLINA Ah, but I do not wish...

DON GIOVANNI What don't you wish? ZERLINA To be deceived in the end. I know that you cavaliers are only rarely honest and sincere with women. DON GIOVANNI Oh, a mere slander spread by common folk. True nobility can be seen in the honesty of one's eyes. Come now, let's not waste time. I want to marry you on the spot. ZERLINA You? DON GIOVANNI Of course. That little villa there is mine, and there, my jewel, we will be married. There you will give me your hand, there you will tell me "yes". You see, it is not far; Let us leave, my beloved. ZERLINA I'd like to, but yet I would not. My heart trembles a little. It's true I would be happy, but he may just be tricking me. DON GIOVANNI Come, my dearly beloved!

ZERLINA I'm sorry for Masetto. DON GIOVANNI I will change your life! ZERLINA Soon I won't be able to resist. DON GIOVANNI Come! Come! There you will give me your hand. ZERLINA I'd like to, but yet I would not. DON GIOVANNI There you will tell me "yes". ZERLINA My heart trembles a little. DON GIOVANNI Let us leave, my beloved. ZERLINA But he may just be tricking me. DON GIOVANNI Come, my dearly beloved! ZERLINA I'm sorry for Masetto.

DONNA ELVIRA Ah, I've found you again, faithless monster! Do not believe, unhappy one, in that faithless heart! The villain has already betrayed me! Now he seeks to betray you. DONNA ANNA, DON OTTAVIO Heavens, what noble bearing, what sweet majesty! Her pallor, her tears fill me with pity! DON GIOVANNI The poor girl is mad, my friends, leave me alone with her, she's mad, my friends. (aside) Perhaps she will calm down. DONNA ELVIRA Ah, do not believe the faithless one! DON GIOVANNI She's mad, pay no attention. DONNA ELVIRA Stay, for Heaven's sake, stay! DONNA ANNA, DON OTTAVIO In whom should we believe? DON GIOVANNI She's mad!

Recitative & Aria DONNA ANNA Don Ottavio, I shall die! DON OTTAVIO What is it? DONNA ANNA For pity's sake, help me! DON OTTAVIO My beloved, take hear t! DONNA ANNA O ye gods! O ye gods! That man is my father's murderer! DON OTTAVIO What are you saying? DONNA ANNA There is no doubt about it. The parting words the villain uttered, his whole voice recalled to my heart that worthless creature who, in my apartment... DON OTTAVIO Oh heaven! Is it possible that beneath the sacred cloak of friendship...? But how was it? Tell me about the strange happening.

DONNA ANNA It was already quite late when into my rooms, where I unluckily happened to be alone, I saw a man enter, wrapped in a cloak. At first I mistook him for you, but then I realised that I was mistaken. DON OTTAVIO Good Lord! Continue! DONNA ANNA Silently he approached me and tried to embrace me. I tried to free myself but he seized me all the harder. I screamed, but no one came! With one hand he tried to quiet me, and with the other he seized me so hard that I already thought myself lost. DON OTTAVIO The scoundrel! And then? DONNA ANNA Finally my despair, my horror of the deed so strengthened me that by dint of twisting, turning and bending I freed myself of him! DON OTTAVIO Ah me, I breathe again!

LEPORELLO I went home, as you told me to, with all those people. DON GIOVANNI Well done! LEPORELLO By chattering, flattery and lies, tricks I picked up from you, I tried to detain them. DON GIOVANNI Bravo! LEPORELLO I told Masetto a thousand lies in order to free his mind of jealous thoughts. DON GIOVANNI Well done, on my oath! LEPORELLO I saw to it that both the men and the women drank. They soon became intoxicated. Some sang, some joked, others continued to drink. At the height of it all, guess who dropped in? DON GIOVANNI Zerlina? LEPORELLO Right! And who was with her?

DON GIOVANNI Donna Elvira! LEPORELLO Right! And she said about you - DON GIOVANNI Everything bad she could think of. LEPORELLO Right, on my oath. DON GIOVANNI And what did you do? LEPORELLO I kept quiet. DON GIOVANNI And she? LEPORELLO She went right on screaming. DON GIOVANNI And then you... ? LEPORELLO When I guessed she had finished, I quietly led her out and skilfully locked the door in her face, leaving her alone in the street.

Scene Four

A garden outside Don Giovanni's house (Zerlina, Masetto and peasants) Recitative ZERLINA Masetto, listen to me. Masetto, I say. MASETTO Don't touch me. ZERLINA Why? MASETTO You ask me why? Cheat! Why should I let a hussy like you touch me? ZERLINA Ah, no! Don't speak that way, cruel man. I don't deserve such treatment from you. MASETTO What? You have the effrontery to make excuses? To remain alone with a man, abandoning me on my wedding day! To shame an honest working man in such a manner! Ah, if it were not for the scandal I would like to - (The peasants leave.)

Scene Five

LEPORELLO What are you doing? DON GIOVANNI Die, I say! LEPORELLO What are you doing? DON OTTAVIO (to Don Giovanni, pistol in hand) Don't try to trick us! DONNA ANNA, DONNA ELVIRA, DON OTTAVIO The villain thinks his trick will serve to hide his villainy! (They take off their masks.) DON GIOVANNI Donna Elvira! DONNA ELVIRA Yes, monster! DON GIOVANNI Don Ottavio! DON OTTAVIO Yes, sir! DON GIOVANNI You must believe -

ACT TWO

Scene One

A street near an inn. Night. Duet DON GIOVANNI Go on, clown, don't annoy me! LEPORELLO No, no, master, I won't stay! DON GIOVANNI Listen, my friend - LEPORELLO I want to go, I tell you! DON GIOVANNI But what have I done to you that you want to leave me? LEPORELLO O, nothing at all. You almost killed me. DON GIOVANNI Go on, you are mad! It was only a joke. LEPORELLO And I am not joking. I want to go. (Leporello starts to go.)

LEPORELLO As long as we leave the women alone. DON GIOVANNI Leave the women alone? You're mad! You know that they are more necessary to me than the bread I eat! Than the air I breathe! LEPORELLO Do you have the gall, then, to betray them all? DON GIOVANNI Love is much the same in any form. He who remains faithful to one is being cruel to the others; I, who have an overabundance of sentiment, love them all. Since women cannot think clearly, they call my natural, kindly feelings betrayal. LEPORELLO I have never come across kindness more abundantly dispensed! Now then, what is it you want me to do? DON GIOVANNI Listen! Have you seen Donna Elvira's little maid? LEPORELLO I? No.

DON GIOVANNI Then you have missed something, my dear Leporello. Now I want to try out my luck with her, and I thought, since it is almost evening, that I would whet her appetite all the more by presenting myself disguised in your clothes. LEPORELLO And why couldn't you present yourself in your own clothes? DON GIOVANNI A nobleman's clothes are not very popular among people of her class. (He removes his cloak.) Come on, hurry up! LEPORELLO Sir, for more than one reason - DON GIOVANNI Keep quiet! I can't stand being argued with! (They exchange cloaks and hats. Donna Elvira appears at a window of the inn.) Trio DONNA ELVIRA Keep still, unjust heart! Do not beat so within my breast! He is a villain, a betrayer, and it is wrong to feel pity.

DONNA ELVIRA So then, can I believe that my tears have won over your heart? That, penitent, my beloved Don Giovanni returns to his duty and to my love? LEPORELLO Yes, my dear! DONNA ELVIRA Cruel one, if you knew how many tears and sighs you cost me! LEPORELLO I, my own? DONNA ELVIRA You. LEPORELLO Poor girl, how sorry I am! DONNA ELVIRA Will you ever run away from me again? LEPORELLO No, my angel. DONNA ELVIRA Will you be mine for ever? LEPORELLO For ever.

(Don Giovanni springs out of hiding and pretends to be waylaying someone.) DON GIOVANNI Ha, ha, ha! Death to you! DONNA ELVIRA, LEPORELLO Ye gods! (They run off.) DON GIOVANNI Ha, ha, ha! Fate seems to be on my side! Now let's see. These are the windows. Let us serenade them. (He picks up a mandolin left behind by Leporello and begins to accompany himself.) Canzonetta Come to the window, my treasure, come to console my lament. If you deny me some relief, I want to die before your eyes! You whose mouth is sweeter than honey, you whose heart cradles sweet desires! Do not, my beloved, be cruel to me! At least let me see you, my loved one! Recitative DON GIOVANNI There's someone at the window! Perhaps she! Pst! Pst! (Masetto enters followed by a group of peasants.)

MASETTO The villain, the scoundrel broke my bones and shattered my nerves. ZERLINA Oh, poor me! Who? MASETTO Leporello, or some devil who looks like him! ZERLINA Cruel man, didn't I warn you that this insane jealousy of yours would bring some trouble? Where does it hurt? MASETTO Here. ZERLINA And then? MASETTO Here, and also here! ZERLINA Nothing else hurts? MASETTO This foot hurts a little, this arm, and this hand.

Scene Two

A dark courtyard of Donna Anna's house Recitative LEPORELLO I see lights all around us, my love. Let us stay hidden here until they go away. DONNA ELVIRA What are you afraid of, my adored husband? LEPORELLO Nothing, nothing. Merely precautions. I'll go and see if the lights are moving away from us. (aside) Oh, how to free myself of her? (aloud) Stay here, beloved! DONNA ELVIRA Ah, do not leave me!

Sextet Alone, in this dark place I feel my heart beating loudly, and such a fear assails me that I feel like dying. LEPORELLO The more I search for this door, the harder it is to find it. Softly, softly, I have found it! Here's the moment to escape! (Donna Anna and Don Ottavio enter.) DON OTTAVIO Dry your eyes, my own, and ease your suffering! By now the shade of your father should have pity on your grief.

Recitative ZERLINA So it was you who, a short time ago, beat up my Masetto! DONNA ELVIRA So it was you who tricked me, rascal, passing yourself off as Don Giovanni! DON OTTAVIO So it was you who in this disguise came here to commit some felony? ZERLINA It's up to me to punish him. DONNA ELVIRA No, to me. DON OTTAVIO No, no, to me. MASETTO Let us all have a hand in it.

Aria LEPORELLO Mercy, dear people! Have mercy on me! You are right to be angry, but the fault is not mine. My overbearing master led me astray. Donna Elvira, have pity! You know what happened. (to Zerlina) Of Masetto I know nothing, (indicating Donna Elvira) this lady will confirm it. For the past hour or thereabouts, we have been together. (to Don Ottavio) To you, sir, I say nothing, I was afraid, an unlucky chance, a light approaching, darkness within. No way out, the door, the wall, then... well... I started that way then hid over here, you know the rest. But had I known I'd have fled this way! (Leporello approaches the door and runs out.) Recitative DONNA ELVIRA Halt, villain, halt! MASETTO The rascal has wings on his feet! ZERLINA With that trick he escaped us, the wretch. DON OTTAVIO My friends, after such doings we can no longer doubt that Don Giovanni is the villainous murderer of Donna Anna's father. Stay inside the house for a while, and shortly I promise you vengeance. This is the demand of pity, duty, and love!

Scene Three

LEPORELLO Feminine, for certain. DON GIOVANNI Can you doubt it? A damsel pretty, young, flirtatious, I met in the street; I drew near to her, took her hand. She tried to escape. I spoke a few words, and she mistook me for, but guess who? LEPORELLO I have no idea. DON GIOVANNI For Leporello. LEPORELLO For me? DON GIOVANNI For you. LEPORELLO How nice. DON GIOVANNI So then she took my hand. LEPORELLO Better still. DON GIOVANNI She caressed me, embraced me: "My dear Leporello! Leporello, my dear!" So I realised she was one of your conquests.

LEPORELLO Damn you! DON GIOVANNI Naturally I took advantage of her mistake. I don't know how she recognised me, but suddenly she began to scream. I heard people coming and I ran away. Then quickly I climbed over that wall. LEPORELLO And you tell me this with such indifference? DON GIOVANNI Why not? LEPORELLO But what if this girl had been my wife? DON GIOVANNI Better still! THE STATUE OF THE COMMENDATORE You will have your last laugh before the next dawn! DON GIOVANNI Who spoke? LEPORELLO Ah, it must be some spirit from another world who knows you well.

DON GIOVANNI Keep quiet, you fool. Who goes there? (He puts his hand on his sword.) THE STATUE Audacious libertine! Leave the dead in peace! LEPORELLO I told you so! DON GIOVANNI It must be someone outside having a joke on us! Hey, isn't this the Commendatore's statue? Read the inscription. LEPORELLO Excuse me, but I never learned to read by moonlight. DON GIOVANNI Read, I tell you! LEPORELLO "Upon the base one who sent me to my death I here await vengeance." Did you hear that? I'm afraid! DON GIOVANNI You old buffoon! Tell him that tonight I expect him to dinner!

THE STATUE Yes! LEPORELLO I can barely move, my strength, oh Lord, has fled! For pity's sake, let's go, let's fly away from here! DON GIOVANNI The scene is truly strange, the old man will come to dinner. Let us go and prepare it, let us leave this place. (They leave.)

Scene Four

A room in Donna Anna's house Recitative DON OTTAVIO Calm yourself, my beloved. We will see the base one punished for his grave crimes; and we will be avenged. DONNA ANNA But my father, Lord! DON OTTAVIO We must bow our heads to Heaven's will. Compose yourself, my dear! If you wish, I will compensate tomorrow for your bitter loss, with my heart, my hand, my tender love. DONNA ANNA Ye gods! What are you saying at such a sad time? DON OTTAVIO What now? Would you with new sorrows increase my own grief? Cruel one!

Scene Five

DON GIOVANNI I understand none of this. LEPORELLO Ta ta ta ta! DON GIOVANNI You've gone out of your mind. (There is a loud knocking at the door.) LEPORELLO Ah, listen! DON GIOVANNI Someone knocks. Open the door! LEPORELLO I'm afraid! DON GIOVANNI Open it, I say! LEPORELLO Ah! DON GIOVANNI Open! LEPORELLO Ah! DON GIOVANNI Lunatic! To put an end to it I shall have to go myself.

LEPORELLO I have no wish to see that again, so quietly I'll hide. (The statue enters. Leporello hides under the table.) THE STATUE Don Giovanni, you invited me to dinner and I have come! DON GIOVANNI I never would have believed it, but I will do what I can. Leporello, see to it that another dinner is served at once! LEPORELLO Ah, master, we are lost. DON GIOVANNI Go, I said! THE STATUE Wait a moment! He who dines on Heavenly food has no need for the food of the mor tals! Other more serious considerations have caused me to come here! LEPORELLO I feel as if I have a fever, for I cannot control my limbs. DON GIOVANNI Speak then! What do you ask? What do you wish?

Epilogue

DONNA ELVIRA, DONNA ANNA, ZERLINA, DON OTTAVIO, MASETTO Where is the villain? Where is the ingrate? All my rage I want to vent on him! DONNA ANNA Only when I see him bound in chains will my anguish be soothed. LEPORELLO Abandon hope of ever finding him. Give up your search, he has gone far away. THE OTHERS What has happened? Tell us! Come now, hurry up! LEPORELLO A giant came, but I can't go on - THE OTHERS Quickly, tell us, hurry up!

libretto by William Murray, 1961