"Non ti fidar"
Don’t trust that faithless heart
This dramatic quartet reflects the swirling emotions and murky currents to be found in a relationship destroyed by betrayal, and powerfully portrays the manipulation and deceit so often a part of keeping up a public front. The ensemble takes on the roles of the key characters in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
DONNA ELVIRA
I've caught you at it again, you evil man!
Don’t trust that faithless heart, you poor woman!
He has already betrayed me!
Now he wants to betray you as well.
DONNA ANNA, DON OTTAVIO
Heavens, look how composed she is!
But she’s so pale, her tears fill me with pity!
DON GIOVANNI
The poor girl is mad, my friends, leave me alone with her,
she's mad, my friends.
Perhaps she'll calm down.
DONNA ELVIRA
Don’t believe this cheat!
DON GIOVANNI
She's crazy, don't pay any attention.
DONNA ELVIRA
Stay, for heaven's sake, stay!
DONNA ANNA, DON OTTAVIO
Who’s to be believed?
DON GIOVANNI
She's crazy.
DONNA ELVIRA
Stay! Don’t believe this cheat. Stay!
DONNA ANNA, DON OTTAVIO, DON GIOVANNI
An unknown grief ... so unfamiliar … is stirring in my soul …
ELVIRA
Scorn, rage, spite and dread ... are stirring in my soul …
DONNA ANNA, DON OTTAVIO, DON GIOVANNI
telling me a hundred things I don’t understand about this poor woman.
DONNA ELVIRA
telling me a hundred things I don’t understand about this unfaithful man.
DON OTTAVIO
I won't leave here until I find out the truth.
DONNA ANNA
There’s no sign of madness in how she behaves or speaks.
DON GIOVANNI
If I go, they might suspect something.
DONNA ELVIRA
That face should show you how black his soul is.
DON OTTAVIO
Then that woman …
DON GIOVANNI
… is a bit crazy.
DONNA ANNA
Then that man …
DONNA ELVIRA
… is not to be trusted.
DON GIOVANNI
Poor woman!
DONNA ELVIRA
You liar! You liar!
DONNA ANNA, DON OTTAVIO
I'm beginning to suspect …
DON GIOVANNI
Quiet. You’re attracting their attention.
Be a bit more careful, you'll get them talking.
DONNA ELVIRA
No hope of that. You’re so vile!
I've lost any sense of caution! I want everyone to know
you’re guilty and what you've done to me.
DONNA ANNA, DON OTTAVIO
Those whispers, how he’s turning pale …
it’s clear – I can see the truth.
DON GIOVANNI
Poor woman! I must go after her.
I don't want her to do anything rash.
Mozart's Don Giovanni portrays the dissolute and hedonistic life of Don Giovanni, who care only for the pleasure of the moment and has no remorse for the havoc he wreaks in others' lives.
At the start of the opera, he rapes Donna Anna and kills her father, the Commendatore, but escapes into the night without being recognised. Donna Anna implores her fiancé, Don Ottavio, to aid her in avenging her father's murder. Donna Elvira, one of the many women Don Giovanni has seduced and abandoned, arrives to seek her revenge, though she still loves him despite what he has done.
Don Giovanni continues to pursue wine, women and song, initially charming his new acquaintances, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira and Don Ottavio. They gradually grow suspicious of him and Donna Anna finally recognises him as her assailant. They plot to expose him, and he is eventually summoned to Hell by the ghost of the Commendatore, remaining unrepentant to the last.