¶ … Mozart's Don Giovanni a group of villages are busy celebrating the marriage of Zerlina and Masetto. As Don Giovanni and Leporello admire the girls involved, Giovanni begins to grow very interested in Zerlina: "What have we? Well, now! Some honest rustic folk; and lots are lovely!"
In a ploy to win her favor, Don Giovanni invites the party to his castle to eat and drink. Once there, he detains Zerlina, to jealous Masetto's annoyance, and pledges to marry her. "He is just about to win Zerlina over by flattering her and declaring his love for her, when Elvira steps between them, warns Zerlina and, while Don Giovanni whispers to her that Elvira is a poor demented woman, jealous because of her own love for him, leads her away."
When Donna Anna and Don Ottavio appear, not yet realizing that Don Giovanni is the man who murdered her father, Anna seeks his help. However, Donna Elvira arrives and attempts to convey to the others what sort of a character he truly is. Don Giovanni acts to thwart this slander by telling them that Elvira is insane and he takes her away. This does not fully work because Donna Anna realizes from his voice that Don Giovanni was her assailant. Once she tells Don Ottavio the details of the night her father was killed and she begs him to seek vengeance; Ottavio, alone, muses about the extent of his love for her.
Next, Don Giovanni and Leporello resurface,...
The key to his lust is easy -- voi sapete quell chef a (providing she wears a skirt). In other words, any female will do, as long as Giovanni can have the conquest. But this is too much for Leporello, and at the beginning of Act II he tells his master: No, no padrone, non-vo' restar (No master, I want to leave you.) Giovanni hands him a purse with
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We all delight in Don Giovanni's 'badness,' Leporello's actions suggest. Don Giovanni does what many of us wish we could do, but dare not. The Don loves women and leaves them, without any care for social conventions. While Leporello's decision to not engage in transgressions with women may be class-based in some instances, even the Don's higher-born counterparts do not openly defy conventional sexual wisdom to the same degree as
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