Don Juan: the “Cycle” & the Traditions

30 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by michelinewalker in Comedy, Don Juan, Molière

Tags

Cycle & Traditions, Dargomyzhsky's Stone Guest, Don Giovanni, Don Juan Tenorio, Ilya Repin, Lord Byron, Mozart, Pushkin's Stone Guest, The Five, Tirso de Molina

Don Juan by A. Golovin (Wikimedia Commons)

Portrait of Tirso de Molina (Wiki2.org)

DON JUAN: A CYCLE AND TRADITIONS

Variations on a theme by Tirso de Molina

The Cycle
Don Juan belongs to the world. Wikipedia’s entry on Molière’s Dom Juan contains lists. In other words, there are several narratives, plays, poems, music, films, etc. featuring Don Juan, including Mozart’s Don Giovanni, an opera. But Don Juan, the lady-killer and murderer, was created by Spanish baroque dramatist Tirso de Molina (24 March 1579 – 12 March 1648), a monk in the Mercedarian (from mercy) order. On his return from a mission in Santo Domingo (1616-1618), Tirso resided in the Mercedarian monastery in Madrid.

According to Hérodote.net (please scroll down to a text and a video), Molina had read in the Chronique de Séville, that Don Juan, the murderer of Governor Ulloa, whose daughter he seduced, was led to hell by a live statue of the Governor, le commandeur. The body of the governor had been laid to rest in the burial ground of a Franciscan convent. In Dom Juan, a play by Molière, the rake suffers the same fate as Governor Ulloa’s Don Juan. In Molière’s Dom Juan, la statue du Commandeur, invites Dom Juan to dinner, takes his hand, which Dom Juan offers, and leads him to a fiery abyss (toutmolière.notice).

Donnez-moi la main.
La Statue (V. vi, p. 70)
[Give me your hand.]
The Statue (V. 6, p. 132)

So, Molière’s Dom Juan belongs to a “cycle.”

The myth or legend may precede Tirso de Molina’s play, but former lady-killers would belong to an oral tradition. In the learned (written) tradition, the first Don Juan is the protagonist of Tirso de Molina’s The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest. The play was first performed in 1625 (toutmolière.notice).

Mozart’s Don Giovanni (K 257) (1787), written on a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, and Molière’s D om Juan (1665) are the most famous versions of the Don Juan legend, but the legend may have different components. For instance, I mentioned, in an earlier post, that Molière’s Dom Juan contains little eroticism, in which it differs from Tirso de Molina’s Don Juan, whose lady-killer is driven by his sexual appetite. Moreover, in Molière’s play, the commandeur is killed before the curtain rises and Dom Juan has tired of Done Elvire, his wife, who left a convent, l’obstacle sacré d’un couvent (I. i, p. 3) (the sacred obstacle of a nunnery [I. 1, p. 80]), to marry Dom Juan.

At this point, I will mention Don Juan Tenorio, a play written in 1844, by José Zorrillia. In Zorrillia’s play, Doña Inés de Ulloa has died and a statue of her has been erected. She comes to life again, as do various statues of commandeurs, and leads Dom Juan to heaven. Don Juan Tenorio has a happy ending. Doña Inés has been in purgatory atoning for Don Juan’s murdered victims: Don Luis, Doña Ana’s fiancé, and Don Gonzalo, Doña Ana’s father.

Don Juan Tenorio differs substantially from Molière’s and Mozart’s. But it remains that all versions of Don Juan, including Don Juan Tenorio, are variations on a theme by Tirso the Molina.

Raimundo Madrazo‘s María Guerrero in the role of Doña Inés (Don Juan Tenorio) (Wiki2.org)

The Stone Guest (Pushkin’s), Don Juan and Doña Ana by
Ilya Repin, 1885 (Wikiart.org)

Two Traditions

Romantic
farcical

Don Juan Tenorio can be described as a romanticized Don Juan. The Don Juan cycle can be broken into traditions, such as the farcical and the Romantic. The Romantic Don Juan reaches beyond the limits of the human condition. This Don Juan has intimations of immortality, etc. Lord Byron‘s Don Juan is a Romantic Don Juan. (See Don Juan [Lord Byron].)

Molière’s Dom Juan is enigmatic, but it can considered farcical. He is an inferior character who dares believe that all women are entitled to the brief attention he will bestow. Sganarelle tells Dom Gusman (Leporello in Don Giovanni), that Dom Juan is an “épouseur à toutes mains.” He has married so many women that it would take Sganarelle all day to name them:

… dame, demoiselle, bourgeoise, paysanne, il ne trouve rien de trop chaud, ni de trop froid pour lui; et si je te disais le nom de toutes celles qu’il a épousées en divers lieux, ce serait un chapitre à durer jusques au soir.
Sganarelle à Don Gusman (I. i, p. 3)
[A lady, gentlewoman, citizen’s daughter, countrywoman; he thinks nothing too hot or too cold for him; and if I were to tell you the names of all those whom he has married in different places, I would not have finished until night.]
Sganarelle to Don Guzman (I. 1, p. 80)

In Leporello’s catalog there would be mille e tre.[1]

Alexander Pushkin also wrote a Romantic Don Juan, His Stone Guest is a poetic drama based on Mozart’s Don Giovanni. It was part of his “little tragedies.” Pushkin did not mean it for the stage. However, Alexander Dargomyzhsky wrote an opera entitled The Stone Guest, based on Pushkin’s Stone Guest. Although the opera was left unfinished, it is/was Dargomyzhsky‘s most famous work. It was finished by César Cui and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, two of the Five composers.

However, Molière’s Dom Juan is also the bombastic and a rather étourdi, scatterbrained, character. Dom Juan does not allow Sganarelle, Molière’s role, to reprimand him. He and God can settle issues between one another, which is fine material for a farce. God will not use a needle to deflate Dom Juan, but the Commandeur he has killed will come to life and push him into hell.

Va, va, c’est une affaire entre le Ciel et moi, et nous la démêlerons bien
ensemble, sans que tu t’en mettes en peine.
Dom Juan to Sganarelle (I. ii, pp. 7-8)
[That’s enough. It’s an issue between Heaven and me, and we get along just fine without you bothering yourself about it.]
Dom Juan to Sganarelle (I. 2, p. 68)

Conclusion

Molière’s Dom Juan was written quickly and was condemned after 15 performances. It is a famous Don Juan, yet part of a cycle of seducers created by Tirso de Molina (1625). Tirso, who wrote approximately 300 plays, some of which were licentious, was at times reprimanded. In fact, he was sent briefly to Salamanca. His Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest, the first Don Juan, was written in the country where casuistry, a form of jurisprudence on moral issues, was developed. Casuistry could justify many sins.

We now turn to Molière Dom Juan which features Sganarelle, our last Sganarelle, Molière’s masque.

RELATED ARTICLES

Dom Juan, encore … (7 March 2019)
Dom Juan “grand seigneur méchant homme” (4 March 2019)

Sources and Resources

Don Juan, or the Feast with a Statue is an Internet Archives publication, translator Henri van Laun
Dom Juan is a toutmoliere.net publication
Lord Byron‘s poem is Gutenberg’s [EBook #5201]
Theatrehistory.com
Madamina, il cataloguo è questo

Love to everyone 💕

___________________

[1] In Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni, the list of the mille e tre conquests of the hero, as sung by Leporello, beginning Madamina, il catologo è questo, Delle belle ch’amo il padron mio, produces a great and admirable effect. (Henri van Laun, The Dramatic Works of Molière, vol. 2, p. 81, footnote 5).

Madamina, il cataloguo è questo
Nicolai Ghiaurov (13 September 1929 – 2 June 2004), Bulgarian bass

Mussorgsky & Repin: a New Dawn

19 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in American Civil War, Russia, Russian Art, Russian Music

≈ 49 Comments

Tags

Agrarian Society, Bloody Sunday, February and October Revolutions, Ilya Repin, Industrial Revolution, Modest Mussorgsky

They did not expect him by Ilya Repin, 1884 – 1888 (Wikiart.org)

“It is generally believed that by depicting various reaction of young man’s household Repin tried to show diverse but mostly positive attitude of society toward revolutionary movements of that time. Actually, under strict censorship of Czarist Russia, it was a political declaration disguised as an everyday genre scene.” (Wikiart.org.)

The Russian Revolution

In the second half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century, Russia changed dramatically. The Emancipation of serfdom, in 1861, led to a major social upheaval. Ironically, several former serfs had to pay for the piece of land they had been cultivating for centuries, but more importantly, an agrarian society was industrialized. (See Industrialisation of Russia, Wiki2.org.) Many Serfs became factory workers whose working conditions were unacceptable.

Matters culminated in a massacre known as Bloody Sunday, 22 January 1905. From 3,000 to 50,000 factory workers marched towards Saint Petersburg’s Winter Palace to deliver a petition (←text) to Tsar Nicholas II. Some 4,000 demonstrators, an approximate number, were gunned down or injured by the Imperial Guard. Others were arrested.

By the end of Word War I, there would no longer be a Russian Empire. Two revolutions occurred in 1917: the February Revolution and the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin, took over during the October Revolution, sometimes called the Bolshevik Coup.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) had abdicated on 2 March 1917. He and his family were executed during the night of 17 – 18 July 1918.

The painting above is immensely foreboding.

But let us listen to another part of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, its introduction.

—ooo—

Mussorgsky’s Dawn on the Moskva-River
Introduction to Khovanshchina

Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin, 1873 (Wikiart.org.)

Mussorgky’s Old Castle

17 Saturday Nov 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Russian Art, Russian Music

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Ilya Repin, Isaac Levitan, Modest Mussorgsky, The Five, The Old Castle, Une larme

Modest Mussorgsky by Ilya Repin, 2 – 5 March 1881 (Wikiart.org.)

I eliminated my post on the Emancipation Reform of 1861. Although the Emancipation Reform of 1861 had deleterious effects on many Russians, Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) became an alcoholic because extreme behaviour was fashionable in his days. (See Modest Mussorgsky, Wiki2.org.)

However, those who turned to the “worship of Bacchus” did not necessarily become alcoholics. Mussorgsky did, and it led to his death.

Repin‘s portrait of Mussorgsky, the eyes in particular, is one of his finest paintings.

Love to everyone 💕

—ooo—

The Old Castle

Une larme (A Tear)

Above the Eternal Tranquillity by Isaac Levitan, 1894 (Wikiart.org.)

Remembering, Varia & the News

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Sharing

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Gazette, Handel, Harmonious Blacksmith, Ilya Repin, Le Devoir, Le Monde, Le Monde diplomatique, National Post, Sviatoslav Richter, The New York Times, the saddest day, United States, WordPress

Apples and Leaves (1879), by Ilya Repin (State Russian Museum)

Photo credit: Wikipedia

9/11

It was the saddest of days. I was in my office, but was told to come and see what was happening in New York. We were crying. All flights to the United States were redirected to Canada and in localities where there were no hotels, motels, inns, such as Gander, Newfoundland, local families took in bewildered passengers.

I worried. If they needed medication, did they have enough? Did they have their nightgowns or pyjamas. Little things. I think my concerns were of a motherly kind.

However, later that day, I received a telephone call from a person of considerable influence in Ottawa, Allan J. MacEachen. We discussed the attacks. He wanted to know what I would do under such circumstances. I answered that, personally, if I were the President of the United States, I would not do anything. I explained that, in my opinion, the terrorists had to be tracked down, but that the United States should not engage in a war.

And what would you do as a Canadian, he asked. I answered that, in my opinion, we were doing what we could and should do. Planes headed for the United States were landing in Canada. We had to be compassionate, hospitable, generous. We had to be good neighbours.

President Obama’s Campaign

As a Canadian, I cannot even imagine life without the social programs put into place about 50 years ago. The person I mentioned above, had lost his elections and was coming back to Antigonish, Nova Scotia. However, Lester B. Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972), an extraordinary Canadian, asked him to stay in Ottawa and design social programs: universal health care, students loans, the Canada Pension Plan, which he did. We are very fortunate. I have written a blog about this person, the Honourable Allan J. MacEachen.

The pictures : I will let it be

Regarding yesterday’s posts, I have decided to feel flattered and let things be. I am not engaging in hostilities as it could harm some of my colleagues at WordPress. They could lose a sponsor.

The News

English

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/

The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html

Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN

CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/

CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/

French

Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/

Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/

Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/

La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/

German

Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/

September 11, 2012

WordPress

composer: Händel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759)

piece: The Harmonious Blacksmith

performer: Wilhelm Kempff (25 November 1895 – 23 May 1991)

Handel by Philip Mercier

September 11, 2012

My Country, your Country, our World…

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Sharing, Songs

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Barge Haulers of the Volga, Félix-Antoine Savard, Gregorian Calendar, Ilya Repin, Kharkov Governorate, Quebec, Russia, Volga River

Ilya Repin, Barge Haulers on the Volga, 1870–1873

Ilya Repin, 5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1844, Chuguyev, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire – September 29, 1930)

Barge Haulers on the Volga, 1870–1873

Photo credit: Wikipedia

[O.S. 24 July]: O. S. means Old Style. There is a discrepancy of twelve days between the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582. For instance, according to the Gregorian Calendar, Christmas occurs on the 25th of December, the date closest to the longest night, but in the Eastern Church the Nativity is celebrated on January 6th, twelve days later. On that day, the Western Church celebrates the rapidly disappearing Epiphany. So, when you see O. S., add twelve days to switch from the old style to the new style.

In my last blog, I noted the existence of a site containing Russian and Canadian art. I have since been exploring Russian Art. I have discovered a picture of rafts of wood in rivers. Does this mean there were Russian draveurs as in Félix-Antoine Savard‘s Menaud, Maître-Draveur, men who risked their lives driving rafts or cages of wood down rivers, like the Canadian raftsmen?

Ilya Repin, Storm on the Volga, 1891

As for the Barge Haulers of the Volga, to a certain extent, they resemble the Canadiens voyageurs who were at times spared a painful portage by standing on the two sides of a waterway hauling canoes. But the boats the Volga River boatmen pulled were extremely heavy.

I have also seen villages and towns that are quite similar to Canadian and particularly Quebec villages and towns. A church stands at the centre, above other buildings, except that the pointed clochers (steeples) of Quebec villages are onion domes or steeples in Russia or pear-shaped domes, in the Ukraine. But these domes, sometimes swirly in shape, are also found in other countries, Bavaria for instance, and on various buildings, including the Vatican, the

Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco, in Venice, other basilicas and churches, the United States Capitol, etc. They are mostly of Byzantine and Greek origin. The Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans on 29 May 1453.

But to return to our Russian villages and towns, the church dominates the landscape, because of its clocher, as it does in Quebec villages and small towns.

I am not including the news. But I have chosen to insert Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff‘s (18 May 1914 – 28 June 1993) interpretation of the Song of the Volga Boatmen.

29 July 2012

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