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Tracing Zerlina's Ancestors Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov Series VIII: Art • Sport • Vol. 5 (54) No. 2 - 2012 TRACING ZERLINA’S ANCESTORS Mihaela BUHAICIUC1 Abstract: The purpose of this article is to identify in the theater and opera early literature the ancestors of Zerlina’s character from the opera Don Giovanni by W.A. Mozart. By doing so, I emphasize the importance of in- depth knowledge of opera characters prior to any attempt to performing them. Key words: Zerlina, Don Giovanni, Da Ponte, Mozart, ancestors . 1. Introduction composer himself. In Mozart’s operas, the low-class characters seem to be those with No characters of any operas create more the common sense, those who oversee the vividly the impression of being real situation, those who objectify and adjust people of the time as Mozart’s figures do their situation so it meets their interest. in his operas: the Count and the Countess, These people are sincere. They behave Suzanna and Figaro, Zerlina and Masetto, how they feel. They have more life- Leporello and Despina, to name a few. wisdom and humor than their counterparts: Mozart’s imagination went beyond the the high-class personages. Their definition en-voque stereotypes of opera buffa and for life is reality. Their morals is perhaps created not simple figures going through different than aristocracies’ but they do conventional, superficial aspects of their distinguish between good and wrong, evil current daily life, nor social types and divine. They perhaps don’t have a integrated in the eighteen century political wide knowledge, but they have belief. frame, but human beings, each of them Lorenzo Da Ponte furnished the libretto feeling, speaking and behaving under for Mozart’s opera. Its title is: Il dissolute certain circumstances very much as any punto, ossia il Don Giovanni – The other human being would, whether in the Libertine punished or Don Juan. eighteen century or the twenty first. Writers and poets have been used the Did Mozart have his favorites? He did, ancient Don Juan legend starting with the indeed. He was a sympathizer of the early seventeenth century: Tirso De peasants and the servants. He himself was Molina, Molière, Shadwell, Goldoni, one of them. Therefore, the roles he Bertati, Byron, Lenau - whose poem allocates to his servants are significant inspired R. Strauss - and Shaw, among parts. They care the action and the others. Most of authors keep the characters intrigue. They bring on-stage the humor and the action related to the original play: through different comic elements. They tell Tirso De Molina’s El Burlador de Sevilla y the story. One may find in them the convidado de piedra, written in 1630. 1 Faculty of Music, Transilvania University, Braşov. 78 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov • Series VIII • Vol. 5 (54) No. 2 - 2012 Some character names are changed Sevilla y convidado de piedra. is Aminta. accordingly corresponding to the place of Unlike Tisbea, Aminta is psychologically the action. For instance, Molière’s less complex. She is a naïve country girl, protagonists are French: Charlotte and who is flattered and overwhelmed by Don Pierrot, Bertati’s characters are Italian: Juan’s attentions. Generally, Aminta seems Maturina and Biagio. more honest than any other woman in the De Molina’s play. She simply gets 2. Tirso de Molina’s Tisbea annoyed when Batricio, her fiancé, reacts unfavorably to Don Juan’s arrival. Aminta Zerlina’s first ancestor is De Molina’s protests when Don Juan enters in her Tisbea. By her demeanor and actions, bedroom at night. Although flattered by his Tisbea becomes the most intriguing and words, Aminta’s good sense tells her not to interesting female character in El Burlador trust him. She accepts his offer for de Sevilla y convidado de piedra. She marriage but only after the Don convinces represents the traditional mythical type her that Batricio has abandoned her. modeled on the disdainful shepherdess Aminta could possibly represent figure of the sixteenth century pastoral Zerlina’s direct correspondent in De stories. She is beautiful, but not sociable, Molina’s play. One of the reasons could be aloof from many male admirers. Her real the fact that the wedding scene from the fascination sits in her individuality. What play, No.7, corresponds with scene No. 5 captures our attention are the in Da Ponte’s libretto. Nevertheless, contradictions in her character and the Aminta is not created as a sharp and powerful passion, which boils under her interesting peasant girl. Tisbea embodies beauty. We notice her delight in the those features. In the whole setting of the sufferings of her suitors; delight, which play Aminta remains a pale figure, unlike comes not from her indifference, but from Tisbea, whose characteristics are clearly her trust in herself and her belief that she, portrayed. This is the main reason for controls the situation. Tisbea finds it which Tisbea is considered the first Zerlina difficult to resist Don Juan’s pursuing. in the literature. Abandoned by Juan, after he promised to marry her, Tisbea degrades beyond 4. Andrea Cicognini’ Rosalba desperation. Juan’s betrayal pushed her to attempt suicide. Tisbea’s outrage and The earliest Italian version of Don excessive violence come from a conscious Giovanni plays is Il Convitato di pietra downfall, not from self-pity awareness as a written probably in 1632 by Giacianto victim of Don Juan’s perfidy. She Andrea Cicognini. His play is based on the continues to live but conducted by a new De Molina’s El Burlador de Sevilla y motto: all men are not to be trusted. Even convidado de piedra and follows closely more disturbing thought for her, to which the action, which takes place this time in she has not found the answer remains: in Italy: Naples and Castile. Cicognini keeps given circumstances, can she trust herself? most of Tirso De Molina’s characters. We find Tisbea in Rosalba, a fisher woman, 3. Tirso de Molina’s Aminta who saves Don Giovanni from the sea. She is added to Don Giovanni’s catalogue of Another peasant character, which I have conquests, fact not mentioned in Juan’s list been initially taken as one of Zerlina’s from El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado ancestors in De Molina’s El Burlador de de piedra. Although she follows the action, M. BUHAICIUC: Tracing Zerlina’s Ancestors 79 which Tisbea cares in De Molina, in drama giocoso in one act. Bertati’s libretto Andrea Cicognini’s play, Rosalba does not is very close to Da Ponte’s. Zerlina’s and resembles Tisbea’s personality, being Masetto’s correspondents are Maturina and portrayed as a weak figure in the play. Biagio. The two young peasants are having their wedding, to which Don Giovanni 5. Carlo Goldoni’s Elisa shows up. Attracted by his charm, his words and convinced by his promise to Another Italian version of Don Giovanni marry her, Maturina accepts Don Giovanni written one hundred years later, in 1736, is in her house. What she is not aware of yet Carlo Goldoni’s Don Giovanni Tenorio or is that this Don is aggressive, even more The Dissolute Man. The action of the play than Da Ponte’s Giovanni. In this play, takes place in Castile and in the Don Giovanni slaps and beats Biagio in surrounding countryside. The noble front of Maturina’s eyes. Even after Biagio characters are similar in features with those is beaten, Maturina considers Don from earlier plays, except Elisa, a Castilian Giovanni a potential husband, who might shepherdess and Carino, her lover. In offer her a change in her life. Unlike Goldoni’s play, Elisa is as complex, strong Tisbea and Elisa, Maturina is not as direct and interesting as Tisbea is in De Molina’s in her thought and feeling deliverance. She El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de does not communicate directly to her stage piedra. partners. We understand her feelings from Elisa appears on stage in the second act her actions. The contradictions in her with her lover Carino. They swear each character are not well defined. Hermann other fidelity for life. In the next moment, Albert makes a remark in his book when left alone on stage, Elisa encounters Mozart’s Don Giovanni regarding the Don Giovanni. Her mind and heart are singers of Maturina and Biagio in changed once again. If Tisbea was more Giusseppe Gazzaniga’s opera, Il Capricio reserved in her manners, yet sincere, Elisa Dramatica. The soprano, who plays is a betrayer. Her purpose is to only enjoy Maturina’s role, also sings Donna Anna; herself and obtain a better social position. and Biagio’s interpreter also performs the She pretends to love anyone who would Commander’s part in the same offer her a better status. Elisa even begs performance. Maturina never meets Donna Don Giovanni to marry her as soon as Anna in this opera. possible with the excuse that tomorrow she might have another offer. 7. Molière’s Charlotte In comparison with Tisbea’s attempt to commit suicide, Elisa’s simulation of Molière’s Don Juan ou le Festin de dying is only a trick to keep her lovers Pierre was written in 1665, only thirty-five around. years after Tirso de Molina’s El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra. 6. Gazzaniga-Bertati’s Maturina Molière’s play was not based directly on De Molina’s work. In fact, I have found With eight months before Mozart’s Don the two plays very different. Molière’s Giovanni was performed, Giusseppe Don Juan is more sophisticated. He Gazzaniga presents in 1787, in Venice Il represents a “thoughtful” - seducer rather Capricio Dramatica, an opera in two acts.
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