Score Study: Don Giovanni Act I: No. 9, Quartet

Julian Rushton has a good article which discusses this quartet in detail regarding structure, instrumentation and characterization.  This essay is Chapter 7 of the Cambridge Opera Handbook on Don Giovanni entitled simply “The Music”.  It has a good deal of information, and offers some enticing observations about the dramatic scene.  Interesting to note are the comments on instrumentation, especially the association of the clarinets with the character of Donna Elvira.

Rushton comments that “the quartet No. 9 is a turning-point in Don Giovanni, articulated by a marvel of restrained expression and musically controlled confusion.” [p. 92]  It is precisely in such moments of human turmoil that Mozart’s genius for musical commentary is most notable.  From the very outset we witness the restrained quality of Elvira in music that is completely different from the angular rage of “Ah, fuggi! Il traditor.”  Rather than risk portraying her as a character of singular expression, as we might expect from a cookie-cutter character of opera seria, Mozart humanizes her by allowing her to express herself in a more controlled manner than the last time we saw her.  Addressing Donna Anna as a social equal, the music is far more reserved.  However, the fact that her first word, the negative “Non” is set as a suspension, is sufficient to lend it a sense of severity as her warning not to trust Don Giovanni.  The string chords which accompany this first statement should be played solidly – each quarter note played to full length with a deliberate attack and release.  The sound may then be slightly warmed at the entrance of the winds in measure 6, but the crescendo should be lead by the strings as the violins illustrate the palpitations of Elvira’s obviously broken heart.  The “mfp” on the word “barbaro” is not delivered in an aggressive manner; instead Elvira is using aggressive language in a very sensitive way.  This is not an angry but rather anguished expression from Elvira.  She is well-composed personally when she sings “te vuol tradir ancor” [“ he wishes to betray you as well”], and Mozart allows these words to have particular resonance by repeating that melodic motif in each of the three consecutive bars (1^st violin, then clarinet, then flute). This warning motive is then repeated with the words “m’empiono di pieta“  at the conclusion of Anna’s and Ottavio’s comments on their impressions of Elvira’s noble suffering.  Despite Giovanni’s protestations throughout this number, this delicate motive always retains its associations with Elvira’s initial words of warning.

In m. 19, Giovanni’s line should be sung with best possible legato, filling out the vowels of the dotted-eighth notes, so that this descending chromatic line is performed in keeping with his efforts to find a means to “slink away” unnoticed from this dangerous situation.  Interesting to note the ‘warning motive” when Giovanni asks to be left alone with Elvira in order to “calm her down”. 

Best legato should be sung in on the triplets in m. 36 and likewise on the dotted-rhythms beginning at m. 40.  The articulations of the violins provide the audible unrest, and Elvira’s triplets “di quell traditore” should be brought out of the texture with due emphasis and articulation.  Care must be taken in this passage to not allow the dynamic level to rise out of control so that Elvira’s “no!” on beat 2 of  m. 44 is, indeed, subito. 

Donna Elvira’s strong reproach to Giovanni is the one glimpse of her “Fuggi!” rage.  Starting with the pickups to m. 74, her rhythm should take on the double-dotting of that aria for “voglio a tutti palesar.”