[MUSIC] Mozart is often called the most universal of all composers. That's the way the Oxford Dictionary music opens it's definitive article on Mozart. And he is universal, of course, because he wrote in all genres, including opera. Most composers were either or composers, in the sense that they were either great instrumental composers or great opera composer. Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, almost nothing but operas, Bach, Beethoven, Haydn. Well, Bach wrote no operas, Beethoven, one. Haydn wrote many but he didn't have the success of those of Mozart. And I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't even identify it for you. I'd be hard pressed to name a single opera by Haydn. But Mozart was a spectacular opera composer, certainly among the two or three best ever. Maybe the best. Composing opera was Mozart's favorite activity. That's what he lived for. What operas did he write? Well, he wrote his first remarkably enough at age 12. Thereafter, he wrote many opera Serail, these large and imposing and somewhat static operas of the Baroque early classical period. Then he turned to comic opera or a blend of comic opera and serious in a new combination style opera that Mozart himself created. We'll see this half-serious half-comic style in Mozart's Don Giovanni. Mozart's three greatest operas are these three. Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and the Magic Flute, which is the greatest opera every written? Well maybe Figaro or maybe Don Giovanni or possibly the Magic Flute. Now, the Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni have something in common, a theater. Figaro, as we said, was premiered here at the Burgtheater. Now here's another view of that same theater. Figaro was a success here so Mozart received and accepted an invitation to go to Prague to have Figaro performed there. So Mozart made the two day coach journey as you can see up from Vienna to the beautiful city of Prague. Now, Prague fortunately has escaped bombing during the Second World War, so its architecture is remarkably well preserved. Here's the Estates Theater in the center of the city, constructed in 1783. The Estates Theater in Prague was where Mozart's Figaro was performed. Figaro was so popular in Prague that Mozart was asked to compose a new opera for the city, which he did, Don Giovanni, and which was premiered here in October of 1787, again in this theater. You can see that when I was there, Don Giovanni was actually playing. So needless to say, I didn't miss that chance. And I went and took a few pictures. It was in this theater inside of which you see here of course. It was in this theater that all the opera scenes for the film Amadeus were created. Amadeus was filmed in Prague because there was, and as we said, more authentic architecture here in Prague than there was and is in Vienna. Let's watch a scene now from Amadeus that we can see Mozart's theater in action. >> It was terrifying and wonderful to watch. [MUSIC] >> So this of course is the personification of Antonio Salieri, Mozart's proposed archenemy. Here's Mozart conducting Don Giovanni in this theater. It still exists, and they tried to make it as close to the original as possible. [MUSIC] What we're watching is the Return of the Commendatore to exact revenge on Don Giovanni, it's terrifying music all in D-minor. [MUSIC] It's Leporello who we'll meet in a moment. [MUSIC] Leporello under the table. [MUSIC] Don Giovanni in front of him now. Okay, I cut it off there, aha. Did it on purpose, leaving you to want more. And we'll get to that. But to the beginning of this opera, Don Giovanni, what's it about? Well let's review. What's opera about? Mozart wrote three great operas. Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute. And we're now gonna segue over to the discussion of opera. What's opera? Musically heightened drama. Music is there behind the drama, and it reinforces it. It does the same thing in film. Ever think about horror films? What's the scariest horror film you've ever seen? AJ? Chucky? >> [LAUGH] >> Okay. There's one I don't know about. But, Shining, something like that, I don't know. Think of something. I don't get scared when watching a movie until what happens? I see some really scary visual. Come on. What scares you in movies. Supposing they took the sound, the sound track out of these horror films. You wouldn't be frightened at all. I think we have a much more visceral response to sound than we do to visual images. And that's what's going on globally in opera. And opera, as you know, is made up of an introductory overture, and then these numbers, such as recitatives, where the composer tells you what's going on. You remember the Bugs Bunny, or I guess it's Warner Brothers cartoon, [SOUND] be very quiet, I am hunting rabbit, [SOUND] that kind of thing? So that's a recitative, what's going on. Then somebody will come out and sing about how they felt about what just happened. That's what goes on in an aria. And arias will tend to repeat words and on and on it goes to give a sense of emotion. And there are choruses involved in it from time to time too. Now as we mentioned Mozart wrote three wonderful operas two of them by Labredus Lorenzo Da Ponte. Read in your textbook there's a box on Lorenzo Da Ponte. Absolutely fascinating life far more fascinating than fiction could ever make it. But we're going to talk now about Don Giovanni. What music is this? Linda, could we have the next piece of music? [MUSIC] What's that? Nice and loud, somebody's got it out there. Overture to Don Giovanni. Overture to Don Giovanni. Mozart wrote them right here at this estate outside of Prague in the wee hours 28 October, 1787. He wrote the whole thing right here at this estate between midnight and 7:00 in the morning. An extraordinary creative act. Act of procrastination, I suppose. An act of self confidence that he could get it done. It's this overture that opens the opera, of course, Don Giovanni, and it was turned into something of a signature tune for the film Amadeus. Let's take a listen here. [MUSIC] This can be very scary because of the D minor tonality, sudden fortissimo, and minor chords. There's a major dominant chord, which he'll come back to that tonic minor in just a second. [MUSIC] In some ways, this is a comic opera, and in others, it's a tragic opera. And with Mozart, that's typical. With Mozart, you never know whether to laugh or to cry. Let's phase it out here. What's this story about? Well, it's an old one based on the Don Juan legend. Don Giovanni is simply the Italian for the Spanish Don Juan. So it's the story of a Don Juan, misogynist, a woman hater who seduces, often rapes, every woman who comes into view simply for the sadistic pleasure of conquest and control. Don Giovanni is also the leading nobleman of the town. Here the upper crust of our high end art, high end society, is the evil villain, and the heroes are the peasants who work to unmask Don Juan and restore social order. When Mozart and Lorenzo de Ponte created this version of the Don Juan tale, they wrote about social tension. This was dangerous stuff. This was incendiary stuff, revolutionary stuff. The French Revolution came only two years after Don Giovanni, opera, 1787, revolution, 1789. The tension and conflict here between the noblemen on one side and the peasants on the other, occurs right in the first scene when the servant, or butler Leporello, complains about his life, complains about working for Don Giovanni, complains about working for the man. In this scene, he's keeping watch for his master while master Don Giovanni attempts another conquest upstairs. But this time, the seduction has gone tragically awry. The lady in question does not succumb. She fights off the masked assailant and calls for help from her father, the aging Commendatore, or Commander, an old military man. The commander confronts Don Giovanni and challenges him to a duel. At first, Don Giovanni refuses. I don't fight with old men, he says. But then the two go at it. Well, how do you write a sword fight in music? Mozart shows us how. Plenty of fast, rising scales, music that goes up course in melodic sequences, melodic symbol, of course, for building tension. And it's always in minor, of course, and it's full of diminished chords. Now, let me play a little bit of this for you. [SOUND] And by coincidence, we start on our D minor chord. [MUSIC] [SOUND] And right there you know that the Commendatore gets it in the stomach. We have this. [MUSIC] Diminished chord fraught with tension made up of nothing but minor thirds, and that's how you signify tension in music. Now, we could watch The Metropolitan Opera perform this scene from Don Giovanni, but I've chosen, instead, a class video, because I think it's very good. Not because my voice is any good. Actually, it's bad. [LAUGH] But because the block of this scene, I think, is quite good. And I'm helped out here by some students and my dear friend and colleague, Professor Richard Lolly, playing the role of the villainous Don Giovanni. [MUSIC] >> Where is the villain? >> And fight me. >> Try to forgive me, to fight with old men. >> Departed coward, I challenge thee. >> My crime forgives me. >> Get out of here. >> No. >> Departed coward, I challenge thee. >> Tempt me not. >> Draw I say. >> Tempt me not. >> Old man, come on then. Your death is near. >> Ah-ha! >> [LAUGH] [MUSIC] >> [SOUND] >> [LAUGH] >> Now we're going to go on to a trio, a very short one, that's an excellent example of a vocal ensemble by Mozart. What's a vocal ensemble? Well, obviously, it's a group of singers. But in the case of Mozart, it's a very special kind of ensemble, three, four, five, even six soloists, each of whom has a different point of view. They don't speak their emotions in succession as they would in an older Baroque opera seria, but all together vocal counterpoint here. Using a vocal ensemble, Mozart can move the drama along faster. Mozart's kind of opera is more fluid, faster paced, and more realistic. Here's how this little vocal ensemble plays out. >> Don Giovanni is over top of him. Mozart wrote this exquisite little trio here. It goes by very quickly. No body ever noticed it, but it's some of the most beautiful music that he ever wrote. We ended up on a diminished chord. Santana, play that diminished chord again, at the top of that line, where he gets stabbed. >> Yep. [SOUND] >> Okay, and then we have this little trio. Leporello, are you back there, Leporello? >> I am. >> Okay. He is just cowering. He just wants to get out of here. This is the worst thing he's ever seen. Don Giovanni is a bit surprised but says, you had it coming to you, and the Commendatore is about to buy the farm here. He's on his way out. So, it says this little, oh, I don't know, 10, 12 measures or so of exquisitely beautiful music. And we'll do it nice and slowly for you. [MUSIC]. Are you there? Let I then look. >> Well great fun. And actually great, indeed extraordinary, music. Some of the most beautiful music as you saw there in the film. Some fo the most beautiful music Mozart ever wrote. And it goes by so quickly. But let's see how all of this turns out. We're gonna turn now to the end of the opera, where the deceased Commendatore comes back to life, exacts retribution from Don Giovanni, and drags him down to hell. [MUSIC] Give me you hand as a pledge, the commendatory says. Here it is. [MUSIC] In repent. [MUSIC] Repent yourself. [MUSIC] Repent again. [MUSIC] no, no, no. [MUSIC] Your time is up. [MUSIC] Earth is trembling. Spirits assail me. [MUSIC] I'm swallowed up in vortices. World. [MUSIC] Consumed by horrible fires, that burn because of the fuel. Etc. Etc. [MUSIC] So that's a film version of Don Giovanni. And that final scene or next to last scene is very difficult to do, needless to say, onstage without burning the place down. Now whenever you think of the villanous Don Giovanni as he goes down to hell here at least you've got to admit that he's a man of resolute principle. No no no. I will not repent. As to hell he goes. We used to think of Mozart and his music as light. Fast. Zany sometimes. But with the great opera Don Giovanni we see the other side of Mozart, the demonic Mozart, the dark, and of course, the minor side of Mozart.
