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There is a moment in Don Giovanni de Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte that sums it up: the Statue, the stone guest who comes to remind Giovanni of his sins, encourages him to repent before he dies in order to save his soul. But the sinner refuses four times: he is a free man who assumes the consequences of his actions, also of their worst. What moral goodness would he have in denying himself? In appearing before death as what it is not? Nobody takes operas very seriously as narratives, but sometimes they tell very important things.

The story of Don Juan de Mozart and Da Ponte is included in the introduction that Carmen Becerra, a researcher at the University of Vigo, has written for the book The Myth of Don Juan (edited by the José Antonio Castro Foundation). The volume includes the five plays written in Spanish that built the myth : there is the first stone, The Mocker of Seville by Tirso de Molina, and there is Don Juan Tenorio de Zorrilla, the work we all think of today. And there are the works postponed that were left in the middle: The student of Salamanca , by José de Espronceda, The revenge of the sepulcher (Alonso de Córdova and Maldonado) and There is no deadline that is not met or debt that is not paid , by Antonio Zamora .

The set reads almost like a novel rather than as a theater. Don Juan travels from an initial conflict situation to a moral solution : the idiotic and presumptuous young man of Tirso, little by little, becomes aware of himself, of the evil he has done and of the good he has found. Don Juan has been arrogant, deceived and killed, but all his shameful behavior becomes, at the end of the road, a vital apparition. Redemption is in that moment of wisdom, love and fulfillment and not in repentance.

«Don Juan was created as a moral example , as a case of theology in relation to the issues discussed in the Baroque era: grace, predestination, free will ...», explains Carmen Becerra. «The evolution of the character is parallel to the social evolution. From his condition as a sinner, as a transgressor, to his spiritual redemption for love, many things change with romantic versions , but above all, the conception of God changes: the medieval and counter-reforming righteous God has been abandoned, to embrace a merciful God and merciful. From the romantic versions, the seducer's vision varies. Love gets forgiveness for the sinner. Don Juan falls in love with a woman (Ana, Inés, Elvira ...) and now Don Juan's thoughts and feelings are more important than action, than his performance ».

Some data: Don Juan is not exactly a myth of unfathomable origin. He was born at the desk of Tirso de Molina and, although it has been speculated that he had some inspiration in real life, there is no great thing to look out there. The important thing, in any case, is that Don Juan jumped to Italy, where he found conditions very similar to those of Spain, even more propitious: the same culture of the Counter-Reformation, the same apparent severity, the same impunity for the privileged. ..

In addition, «the last years of the XVI and almost all the XVII contemplate the continuous decline of Italian theater. In the Italian scene of the time, works resulting from the translation and imitation of Calderón and Lope and the great Spanish theater authors of the Golden Age were represented, ”Becerra explains. Just as Spain learned the sonnet of Italy, Italy learned the baroque theater of Spain.

Tirso's text was well suited to Comedy Art companies. The figure of the avenging statue was perfect for its audience and the comedians endorsed the myth, popularized it and reinvented it. Afterwards, Juan moved from Italy to France, where Moliére rewrote history in a pre-Romantic key. From France, the mocker jumped to Germany through Mozart. ETA Hoffmann also wrote a heroic Don Juan. And from there, travel back to Spain, to the Tenorio de Zorrilla that summarizes the entire trip. At first, Juan is a taco Bellaco. In the end, he seems wise.

Very good. But are we missing something? We are in 2019 and it is impossible not to talk about the women of myth: "The figure of women evolves within this mythical structure," Becerra explains. «It goes from being simply a necessary collective for the actions of Don Juan, a functional character, to gradually emerge in round, individualized, complex characters, capable of deciding for themselves, which change throughout history».

A couple of years ago, the National Classical Theater Company premiered a Don Juan adapted by Juan Mayorga and directed and performed by Blanca Portillo that presented Tenorio severely. Tirso's character ceased to be a Gainsbourg, a fresco with which to have fun and to love , and was judged by his actions, not by the complexity of his feelings.

"We were disturbed by the idea that Tenorio remains a symbol of masculinity, a hero," recalls Blanca Portillo. «We focus on the despicable character, on the macho monster that destroys, that does not empathize, that kills and violates for pleasure . There was no redemption possible for him. Tenorio only begins to repent when death approaches. Our Tenorio was an example of what a human being should not be.

Helena Pimenta, who was then the director of the National Classical Theater Company: « It was about looking at the myth in the face and reproaching its crimes . We were introduced to a man without mercy and destroyer of the feminine world that, as such, influenced later behaviors. The show was controversial but, it provoked a lot of interest ». However, Pimenta does not give up the ambiguous villain that the romantics created: «I like that idea. His transgression and individualism, in the face of incoherent and destructive social structures, are a form of learning that redeems and produces compassion. But really, I don't know well. In popular language the myth has been fixed as a conqueror and heartbreaker ... and the text says things like: 'Whom I wanted to provoke, / with whom I wanted to beat me / and everywhere I left / bitter memory of me'. I don't see him as a hateful character exactly; rather it would be a villain, an evil person who has his reasons and whom you can pity like Macbeth at the end of the play or Corleone.

This week will come the day of All Saints and the night of the Dead. If a stone statue came to ask us about our shame, what would we do?

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