To Hell with the ruling class

I’ve recently learned a thing or two about Mozart’s Don Giovanni that I think are worth passing along. Keep in mind that I’m not a musicologist, but I’m going to put my best foot forward.

One thing that surprised me is that the character of Don Giovanni is a cavalier. In that day, a cavalier was the only man, except for a priest, that a woman could be alone with and not lose her honor in the eyes of the community."

The biting criticism in the piece suddenly clarified itself. Here is a nobleman that has been elevated to the status of cavalier which means he is supposed to protect women and children and the innocent. Of course, Don Giovanni does quite the opposite and abuses his status. The story becomes more about the abuse of power than the seduction of women.

Yes, yes, Don Giovanni is about the seduction of women and it is funny but the humor is edgy and critical of the ruling class.

There is also the fact that no one except the nobility was allowed to keep weapons. That has a small part to play in the story of Don Giovanni but it changes my perception of Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.

These two collaborated on Cosi fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Don Giovanni. While Cosi is more or less a comedy about mistaken identity, both Figaro and Giovanni are about a nobleman abusing his power.

The count in Figaro is a tamer version of Don Giovanni but he is still trying to take advantage of his position.

We tend to think of Beethoven and Wagner as the composers who took on the ruling class but Mozart vilified it in Figaro and to a greater degree in Giovanni — sending the Don to Hell at the end of the piece.