WOLFGANG A M ADEUS MOZART
DON GIOVANNI
SERGIO MORABITO
TURNED UPSIDE DOWN OR WHAT HAPPENS IN THE PENULTIMATE SCENE OF DON GIOVANNI ?
The Comedia famosa del Maestro Tirso de Molina ‘El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra’ has Don Juan consumed by the flames of hell. In this, the seduction of women and mockery of their honour admittedly plays a subordinate role – the attitude of the times saw such youthful sins as acceptable. It is his dismissal of penance, absolution and the omnipresence of death that leads to Don Juan’s damnation in this comedia by a theatre-loving monk of the Counter Reformation. The lunatic here is anything but an agnostic or atheist. He relies simply on the protection of his powerful family, which saves him from earthly prosecution, and on his youth, which indefinitely postpones his death and subjection to heavenly justice. He asks the “stone visitor” in good Catholic terms, “Are you in Hell? […] Are your sins leading you there?” In the first two acts, Juan has dishonoured two noblewomen and two peasant women before our eyes. He has deceived the two noblewomen of his identity by disguising himself under cover of darkness, and seduced the fisherwoman and peasant woman by compliments and promises. He has fled from all his obligations. This fails when Juan and his servant Catalinón find the grave of Don Gonzalo de Ulloa in Act 3 scene 8, the father of Doña Ana, killed in the duel in Act 2 scene 11. Juan mocks the inscription on the gravestone:
36
TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
“For the cursing and mockery suffered a nobleman here waits for revenge: may God punish the traitor.” by pulling the beard of the monument and inviting him to dinner:
[…] when it’s convenient for you to come to me, we can talk about revenge, if you’re determined to take it.
And he continues, “If you want to revenge your woe when I’m dead, you’d be sensible to forget your vengeance, it would take too long! The final verse which ends the scene – “tan largo me lo fiáis” – is a recurring refrain in Juan’s mouth, which in the slightly modified form “¡qué largo me lo fiáis!” is actually sung in the following sequence (Act 3, scenes 1015) which includes the visit of the stone guest. When the initially silent statue answers his host’s question whether he would like to be entertained with song by nodding assent, the following song is sung backstage at Juan’s command: “ If for love and suffering You’re threatening me after my death with revenge, fairest one, bah, there’s plenty of time to wait.” The statue only begins to speak (“quietly, like one departed”) after Juan followed its nod to clear the table, send Catalinón and the two other servants out and have them close the doors behind them. He obliges Juan with a handshake to follow his invitation to a dinner that he intends to set for Catalinón and him in his sepulchre. After his departure, where he refuses to be shown out with lights, because “mercy lights my way”, Juan blows off the fear of hell that the handshake has struck in him as his imagination, and decides to go to the sepulchre the next day “So that Seville can admire me, wondering at my defiance!”
37