Class/Gender

Question 1

Don Giovanni and CLass

Answer 1

• DG Fiddles with class boundaries to serve his own interests (when he switches clothes with Leporello)
• End of Act I Finale ‘Riposate, vezzose ragazze’ has dances in 3 different metres, all associated with different social classes. Mixing and blurring them.
• Trend in sentimental opera to portray idyillic relationship between master and servant
• DG treatment of Leporello upturns this (as does Count)

Question 2

Così and Class

Answer 2

• Plot can be seen as trite but music allows for complex ambiguity
• No social barrier between lovers
• They can converse in complicated musical language
• E.g. fra gli amplessi

Question 3

Fiordiligi

Answer 3

• Come scoglio sort of parody (highs and lows – disjunt melodic leaps) - opening phrase is remisicent of Donna Anna’s ‘or sai’ and contrast of extremes shows parody
• I think that it shows inner turmoil too – Fiordiligi generally more seria
• Seduction frag li amplessi – ‘ah non son piu forte’ – suggests lack of consent at start is evident
• Fiordiligi at start resists generalising clame about women’s infidelity
• Performance can bring out realism as well as music does

Question 4

Dorabella

Answer 4

General:
- Don Alfonso views reflect Enlightenment views of women as capricious?
- Women individually (and their music) shows more stuff about gender

Dorabella:
- Da Ponte frames them as prime examples of capriciousness
- ‘smanie implacabili’ – every phrase broken off at end by musical sighs
- Opera seria high style, pulsating strings, excessive repetition – extremes show parody

Question 5

Despina

Answer 5

• She is able to influence the sisters much more than DA and he needs her help
• But this power is double-edged sword as DA uses it to prove his plan that ‘all women are the same’
• Also at the end she is returned to same position as sisters and is mocked by Ferrando and Guglielmo
• Alfonso’s part seen as means of ‘teaching’ but she is marked as an ‘incorrigible example of the opera’s motto’ – Kiri Brown-Montesano

Question 6

Donna Anna - sexual assault

Answer 6

• Historically cast as consenting partner to DG, thus emphasising sexist trope of woman as ‘liar’
• Margaret Cormier suggests that music might be better perceived as a representation of a trauma response to sexual abuse
• Fragmented return of vocal material in ‘or sai’
• Written as a rape scene so Mozart and Da Ponte can be seen in this way to cast her as sympathetic

Question 7

Zerlina

Answer 7

• Sexist trope of ‘fickle’ woman because initial consent is written into text, with romantic 6/8
• But Cormier emphasises importance of class to the seduction
• She lacks even less agency to consent and her sexuality is the only power she is afforded
• Later bit where she screams – obvious assault

Question 8

Donna Elvira - feminism

Answer 8

• Often falls into sexist stereotype of spurned woman as hysterical or irrational
• But historical context that as an abandoned fiancée she will not be able to marry again
• More sympathetic when mi tradi is added: split between her wish for vengeance and love for DG
• Cormier frames her as a ‘victim of intimate partner violence’
• Mezzo caratere
• She is adaptable like Don G in her emotions
• Strength of her love is her ‘undoing and her triumph’ (Rushton) as it lets her be fooled but also allows the moral victory of the final renunciation
• She is overwhelmed by her feelings and often incoherent but this makes her more human than any of the characters.

Question 9

Susanna and Countess

Answer 9

• The two show a solidarity, more so than any other two women in Mozart’s operas
• Their relationship largely surpasses class
• Mozart and Da Ponte cut the political commentary but they did emphasise this cross-class friendship
• Their relationship is what raises the plot above level of farce because is generates a real concern for various couples. The opera is about their grace (Allanbrook)
• Contrast between bitchy dialogue of Marcellina/Susanna and the ‘women’s space’ of the Countess’ room
• Only genuine limitation is their class – but Allanbrook says that their relationship is beyond class, even if it is not permanent
• When they exchange clothes, their compatibility is more than a stage device (especially to modern audience)

Question 10

Countess

Answer 10

• Redefines the Countess so she is understood as pinnacle of sentimental heroine(Mary Hunter) – and shows idealized femininity, more feeling than action
• Her relationship with Cherubino is ‘godmotherly’
• Lacks human flaw and so remains apart from rest (but this is idea of sentimental woman)
• Met in private; Allanbrook says she does not make an entrance but is ‘discovered’
• Also aligned with patient suffering and constancy of Christ (Hunter) – also both arias aligned to Mozart mass melodies

Question 11

Susanna

Answer 11

• She is fluent in comic and courtly idioms
• Opening duet ‘cinque, dieci’ – hers is the gavotte, feminine grace of gallant courtly dance
• Figaro’s is bourée pattern (Allanbrook) and they are both mezzo dances
• She uses Figaro’s language to win him over and get her way in ‘ding don’
• She uses Marcellina’s language to beat her in the duet – her replies are accurate parody; makes fun of Marcellina’s relationship with Bartolo

Question 12

Donna Anna general

Answer 12

• Her desire for vindication remains constant throughout unlike Elvira
• Her role keeps the opera from fitting easily into comic-opera category
• She is a heroic component - set apart from sentimentality because of her demand for retribution
• her conflict between father and fiancé (padre and sposo) sets her apart as in Comic opera marriage is supposed to triumph
• Brown-Montesano says that this makes her ‘one of Mozart’s most flesh-and-blood creations’

Question 13

Donna Elvira general

Answer 13

• Lipking says that abandonment brings out the worst in women but therefore also the worst in ‘common attitudes towards women’ making them caricatures
• She satisfies the conventional expectation of operatic women being ‘undone’; makes her more ‘feminine’ than Anna
  -No.8 and 9 (ah fuggi and the quartet non ti fidar) are the only times in the opera when Elvira gets advantage over DG (although critics often emphasise her madness in ah fuggi)
• her love and obsessive constancy could actually link her to Countess
• Act II trio/aria ‘ah tacci’ - she is mocked by Don and Lep - her feelings are undermined
• Don G and Lep frame our image of her until mi tradi - she can then be seen as more real taken out of ex-lover context