THE best bad guys are the ones who don’t realize they are bad guys. In Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the title character has a heart of such infinite affection, there is no woman he doesn’t love. To love only one woman would be unfair to the scads of other beauties out there, no? The women he conquers, on the other hand, think Don Giovanni deceitful and have trouble grasping his unpopular concept of love.
”According to societal norms and other characters, he has no sympathy for others,” says baritone Andrew Garland, who will portray the licentious nobleman in Opera New Jersey’s production of Don Giovanni. “He of course believes that the way he goes about life is one that honors other people and treats them well and fairly.”
Set in and about 17th century Seville, the darkly comic drama (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte) opens July 11 on McCarter’s Matthews stage to kick off Opera NJ’s summer season, with additional performances July 24 and Aug. 1. The season also includes performances of Gounod’s Faust July 18, 23 and 31 (Matthews), and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale July 17, 25, 30 and Aug. 1 on McCarter’s Berlind stage.
While Don Giovanni remains static, the other characters’ worlds are rocked or shattered by him. “If you grow up in a conservative or repressed home and you get out in the world, and it doesn’t have the same rules you were taught or adhere to your universe, the Don symbolizes that,” says Stage Director John Hoomes. “He doesn’t think he’s a bad guy at all — he doesn’t know why people have a problem.”
At the onset of Act 1, Don Giovanni ravishes the Commendatore’s daughter, Donna Anna (who is betrothed to Don Ottavio), then kills the Commendatore in a duel.
”In the first 60 seconds he tries to ditch a noblewoman he seduced and kills her father but justifies it. More than that, he simply states this is logical and fair,” Mr. Garland says. When Leporello questions his master’s actions, Don Giovanni says the Commendatore forced him to fight. “Giovanni, being young and able and a better swordsman, inevitably accepts the challenge.”
Next, he tries to seduce a woman until he realizes — wait — he already recently seduced and abandoned Donna Elvira and needs to escape! When the village celebrates the impending wedding of Zerlina and Masetto, Don Giovanni lusts after Zerlina and nearly conquers her. He even goes after the maid — there’s no woman he doesn’t crave.
Playing such a character has been “quite a ride” for Mr. Garland. “One of the greatest thrills of doing what we do is you get to be and do on the stage all sorts of things and people, respectively, that you would never do in real life,” he says. Mr. Garland firmly believes that a man shouldn’t take advantage of any woman he wants to and then kill her father, yet he has to be someone who does that on stage. “The idea of being pursued is exciting... as long as you’re affecting everyone around you and have their attention, whether it’s in a positive or negative way.”
Don Giovanni certainly holds the attention of the women in the opera in a negative light. Donna Elvira — merely one of Don Giovanni’s thousands of conquests — was recently seduced and abandoned by him. Soprano Laquita Mitchell sings the part for the second time in her career, having played Donna Anna twice in between. “It’s definitely emotional,” Ms. Mitchell says. “She’s such an emotional character, period. It’s a woman who falls in love with the wrong person, and that’s a true issue in our society.”
This makes the role a challenge, in that it requires the stamina to express the character’s various emotions that come with loss — grief, anger, bitterness, jealousy, denial. Ms. Mitchell, who did her undergraduate work at Westminster Choir College, has to give emotion to certain phrases but understand she has more to give later.
”Because she’s so angry, you want to shout a lot, but with this role you really cannot,” Ms. Mitchell says. “You have to show her depth and emotion in the way you sing the phrases, the way you nuance the words and the way you say the words as not to give too much voice. Anyone can play angry, but who can play angry for like three hours? It becomes quite difficult, so you have to vary it.
”I think that’s why I love the show so much,” she adds. “It’s one of my favorite operas not only because of Mozart’s dealing with the depth of vocal expression but also his dealing of the emotionality and psyche of man, the duality of man.”
Of the music, Ms. Mitchell’s favorite is Elvira’s aria “Mi Tradi.” “I love it because she has such anger toward this man but yet her heart still beats for him — she loved him. I think it’s great that the character is able to express fully what she’s feeling. The music is given to you, you don’t really have to do much but sing it well. Mozart does all the work for you.”
The grist of the story is not only of Mozart’s time — even today, we struggle with certain evils in the world we cannot conquer. “We always try to repress desire, or repress and get rid of evil but you don’t know if you can ever destroy it,” Mr. Hoomes says. “You can push it down and hide it, but it’s ultimately still with us. You have to control it and live with it.”
If Don Giovanni repented at the end of the opera, well, then we wouldn’t get to see him go to hell. “Art has to put up a mirror to life. Without giving too much away, the way this production is set up, I think it takes that putting up a mirror to real life another step and makes it even more vivid,” Mr. Garland says. And Giovanni going to hell is Mr. Garland’s favorite part. “You die on stage now and then but how many times do you get dragged into hell? Talking about stuff you would never do in real life — that’s really exciting.”
Don Giovanni
will be performed as part of Opera New Jersey’s Summer Season at McCarter’s Matthews Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, July 11, 2 p.m. (pre-concert talk 1 p.m.); July 24, 8 p.m.; Aug. 1, 2 p.m. Tickets cost $35-$110. The season also includes Faust,
Matthews Theatre, July 18, 2 p.m. (pre-concert talk 1 p.m.); July 23, 31, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $35-$110. Don Pasquale,
Berlind Theatre, July 17, 8 p.m. (pre-concert talk 7 p.m.);
July 25, 2 p.m.; July 30, 8 p.m.; Aug. 1, 7 p.m. Tickets cost $59-$90. 609-258-2787; www.opera-nj.org 
