ABSTRACT
Chapter 5, ‘The disguise episode’, examines the Act II street scene where Don Giovanni and Leporello exchange cloaks. Since the nineteenth century, it has been used to display the seducer’s abusive treatment of Leporello, Donna Elvira and Masetto, but Luigi Bassi’s Don Giovanni was remarkable for his vocal seductiveness in the trio and the canzonetta and for his impersonation of Leporello (though Bassi seems to have omitted the disguise aria in the years after the premiere). If the singers of Don Giovanni and Leporello are both excellent vocal impersonators, the episode may transfer the action to a metaphorical level, dissolving the difference between master and servant as they exchange identities, thereby turning the musical-erotic seductiveness into a general mood that pervades the Act. The depiction of Don Giovanni as a virtuoso of seduction and transformation brings out the meta-operatic dimension, where he becomes a symbolic stand-in for the composer and Leporello for the poet, while those who are seduced on stage become stand-ins for those who are seduced in the auditorium. The transformation also entails an element of sentimental education as Donna Elvira is invited to apprehend that her sexual infatuation with Don Giovanni is a mere projection.
