“Don Giovanni” – Act 1
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart libretto (English)
| 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 - |