The Don Giovanni Duets
Created | Updated May 11, 2003
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sjoh1661/
The duet of number 2 begins with Donna Anna discovering her father’s body (bar 1), and progresses through to Anna and Ottavio resolving together to kill the culprit (ending bar 224 “Curtain falls rapidly”).
The four-and-a-half-bar-long introduction does not lead into any traditional recitative accompaniment; Anna sings alone, presenting a state of external quiet yet internal turmoil. The introduction begins again in bar 8 (albeit a fourth higher), but this time there is orchestral accompaniment of the recitative. From the end of 18 to 23, Anna’s short outbursts of sudden realisation are particularly effective amongst minims in the orchestra.
The chromaticism in this section, particularly the diminished chords, is good for creating dramatic uncertainty through tonal uncertainty. From 30 to 33 Anna sings a short chromatic scale (B – C – C#), and this is continued in outline until 37 (D – Eb). In fact, the tonality of the whole of the recitative is uncertain: it starts in C minor, albeit with a C major key signature, reaches F minor in 9, and from there until the aria (which is in D minor) stays in no one key for much more than a bar or two, e.g. 14 – 16 Ab major, 33-352 D minor.
At the allegro of bar 63, Donna Anna begins to sing “as if insane ”: the rhythmic idea of her singing the tied minim over the bar line certainly evokes a kind of lunacy.
From 834, Anna’s text reflects the concept of loss (particularly from bar 92, “Ah, il padre mio dov’e?” = “But where, O where is he?”), and the orchestration in bars 89 – 96 echoes this by using the octaves in the violins with a thinly-orchestrated chord.
Don Ottavio takes the uncertainty and chromaticism of previous passages on in bars 97 – 100, but in bar 105 he cadences in F major, a sign of his optimism: after more than a hundred bars of uncertainty, there has finally been a forceful cadence. The whole position repeats itself briefly in bars 107 – 123; until bar 111, Anna is again singing “Il padre mio dov’e?”, and from 113 – 116 Ottavio continues the chromaticism. An extended preparation for the cadence follows, and it eventually occurs in bar 123.
The diminished chord that quickly follows, in bar 124, is a preparation for the militancy of the next section. From 137 until the end of the duet (bar 224), Anna and Ottavio almost never come out of their thirds, and most of the exceptions are unisons.
The general dramatic idea of this whole duet is to have a sequence of discoveries via the medium of recitative, then a resolution to find and slay the murderer. To generalise, the trajectory is positive, and we leave the trajectory midway through its path, as we do not see the action referred to yet.
No. 7 (the duettino is in bars 1 – 82) uses much the same idea: Don Giovanni is in the early stages of seduction at the beginning, and by the end Zerlina has agreed to go with him; although Donna Elvira’s entrance just after the duet stops this actually taking place, it is still positive motion towards the end of the section I am looking at, as the twist comes after it.
The accompaniment is simple, allowing Don Giovanni (and later Zerlina) to take sole control of the phrasing in this first section (1 – 49).
When Zerlina sings in 9 – 18, it is an extended and embellished version of what Don Giovanni has sung in 1 – 8. This leaves us with a contradiction: the two parts, although they disagree textually (Giovanni’s “Partiam, ben mio, daqui.” = “Why not walk on with me?” as opposed to Zerlina’s “Felice, è ver, sarei,” = “I fear you may deceive me,”), agree musically, using the same theme.
This is probably part of the greater dramatic effect: Zerlina is only putting up a fight so that she is not seen as an easy target, and desperately wants to go with Giovanni from the very beginning; so perhaps not so much of a contradiction after all.
Bars 19 – 22 (with the same applying in an extended form to 23 – 29) create a juxtaposition of arpeggio (Don Giovanni) and chromaticism (Zerlina). Until Zerlina’s A# in bar 21, the singers have been strictly diatonic. Don Giovanni’s confident arpeggios are immediately followed by the conjunct chromaticism of Zerlina’s worrying.
From 30 – 46, the two singers repeat their previous words, but instead of alternating after singing an entire quatrain, they swap after each line, with changes from bar 35, where Giovanni previously sang an F# rather than a D. The entries in bars 38, 40, 41 and 42, which overlap, give a stretto effect which increases tension before Zerlina’s extended chromatic passage (43 – 46) and the Andiams.
At the allegro change to 6/8 time, the two characters, having previously been entering against each other, come together, singing the same text and the same rhythm right until the exeunt. The exception is bars 65 – 72, where they once more exchange Andiams.
This is very similar to the end of the first duet described above, where the two characters, having decided on a solution to their differences, sing together homophonically.
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Translations are by Auden and Kallman in the Schirmer Vocal Edition.
The duet of number 2 begins with Donna Anna discovering her father’s body (bar 1), and progresses through to Anna and Ottavio resolving together to kill the culprit (ending bar 224 “Curtain falls rapidly”).
The four-and-a-half-bar-long introduction does not lead into any traditional recitative accompaniment; Anna sings alone, presenting a state of external quiet yet internal turmoil. The introduction begins again in bar 8 (albeit a fourth higher), but this time there is orchestral accompaniment of the recitative. From the end of 18 to 23, Anna’s short outbursts of sudden realisation are particularly effective amongst minims in the orchestra.
The chromaticism in this section, particularly the diminished chords, is good for creating dramatic uncertainty through tonal uncertainty. From 30 to 33 Anna sings a short chromatic scale (B – C – C#), and this is continued in outline until 37 (D – Eb). In fact, the tonality of the whole of the recitative is uncertain: it starts in C minor, albeit with a C major key signature, reaches F minor in 9, and from there until the aria (which is in D minor) stays in no one key for much more than a bar or two, e.g. 14 – 16 Ab major, 33-352 D minor.
At the allegro of bar 63, Donna Anna begins to sing “as if insane ”: the rhythmic idea of her singing the tied minim over the bar line certainly evokes a kind of lunacy.
From 834, Anna’s text reflects the concept of loss (particularly from bar 92, “Ah, il padre mio dov’e?” = “But where, O where is he?”), and the orchestration in bars 89 – 96 echoes this by using the octaves in the violins with a thinly-orchestrated chord.
Don Ottavio takes the uncertainty and chromaticism of previous passages on in bars 97 – 100, but in bar 105 he cadences in F major, a sign of his optimism: after more than a hundred bars of uncertainty, there has finally been a forceful cadence. The whole position repeats itself briefly in bars 107 – 123; until bar 111, Anna is again singing “Il padre mio dov’e?”, and from 113 – 116 Ottavio continues the chromaticism. An extended preparation for the cadence follows, and it eventually occurs in bar 123.
The diminished chord that quickly follows, in bar 124, is a preparation for the militancy of the next section. From 137 until the end of the duet (bar 224), Anna and Ottavio almost never come out of their thirds, and most of the exceptions are unisons.
The general dramatic idea of this whole duet is to have a sequence of discoveries via the medium of recitative, then a resolution to find and slay the murderer. To generalise, the trajectory is positive, and we leave the trajectory midway through its path, as we do not see the action referred to yet.
No. 7 (the duettino is in bars 1 – 82) uses much the same idea: Don Giovanni is in the early stages of seduction at the beginning, and by the end Zerlina has agreed to go with him; although Donna Elvira’s entrance just after the duet stops this actually taking place, it is still positive motion towards the end of the section I am looking at, as the twist comes after it.
The accompaniment is simple, allowing Don Giovanni (and later Zerlina) to take sole control of the phrasing in this first section (1 – 49).
When Zerlina sings in 9 – 18, it is an extended and embellished version of what Don Giovanni has sung in 1 – 8. This leaves us with a contradiction: the two parts, although they disagree textually (Giovanni’s “Partiam, ben mio, daqui.” = “Why not walk on with me?” as opposed to Zerlina’s “Felice, è ver, sarei,” = “I fear you may deceive me,”), agree musically, using the same theme.
This is probably part of the greater dramatic effect: Zerlina is only putting up a fight so that she is not seen as an easy target, and desperately wants to go with Giovanni from the very beginning; so perhaps not so much of a contradiction after all.
Bars 19 – 22 (with the same applying in an extended form to 23 – 29) create a juxtaposition of arpeggio (Don Giovanni) and chromaticism (Zerlina). Until Zerlina’s A# in bar 21, the singers have been strictly diatonic. Don Giovanni’s confident arpeggios are immediately followed by the conjunct chromaticism of Zerlina’s worrying.
From 30 – 46, the two singers repeat their previous words, but instead of alternating after singing an entire quatrain, they swap after each line, with changes from bar 35, where Giovanni previously sang an F# rather than a D. The entries in bars 38, 40, 41 and 42, which overlap, give a stretto effect which increases tension before Zerlina’s extended chromatic passage (43 – 46) and the Andiams.
At the allegro change to 6/8 time, the two characters, having previously been entering against each other, come together, singing the same text and the same rhythm right until the exeunt. The exception is bars 65 – 72, where they once more exchange Andiams.
This is very similar to the end of the first duet described above, where the two characters, having decided on a solution to their differences, sing together homophonically.
--
Translations are by Auden and Kallman in the Schirmer Vocal Edition.
