Popular Culture Review Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2002 | Page 90
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Popular Culture Review
7. Hermann Abert concurs. O f the puppet plays performed in Augsburg, Ulm Strasbouig,
and other villages, he states, “O f course the clown is the main character” (31).
8 . Both don Juan and Mozart tried to free themselves from the influence o f domineering
father figures. Leopold Mozart, himself an accomplished musician, developed a genuine,
if overbearing, interest in his son’s musical career, thereby creating a tense relationship
o f domination, rivalry and subordination. As Eric Plaut asserts, “Clues to Mozart’s
profound understanding o f the Don [Giovaimi] can be found in that relationship” (7).
In a recent letter that I received. Professor Singer takes issue with Plaut’s assertions by
pointing out that. Da Ponte, not Mozart, wrote the libretto for the opera. Nevertheless,
one could also argue that the basic plot o f the don Juan story was familiar to both Da
Ponte and Mozart, and, therefore, Mozart’s choice o f topics could have given him the
opportunity to work through some the problematic aspects o f the relationship with his
father.
9. Under Emperor Joseph II Viennese society underwent a social realignment. Due to the
emperor’s egalitarian reforms, wealthy merchants mingled more frequently and easily
with the aristocrats. This social restructuring caused a crisis in the interpretation and
distinction o f appearance from reality. In eighteenth-century \^enna, one’s clothing
did not necessarily coincide with one’s origins and social standing. The confusion o f
reality and appearances, and more specifically, relating that confusion to one’s clothing,
is patent in Don Giovanni. Andrew Steptoe asserts: “His [Mozart’s] mature operas,
too, share this preoccupation with the sincerity o f appearances. For people who set
such store by appearance ran the risk o f being misled, a confusion that promoted the
prospects not only o f the talented but also o f the opportunist. The late eighteenth century
was a golden age for the intrepid adventurer, particularly at Court” (17).
10. Plaut states that Casanova even contributed