“What do you think of the opera?”: Don Giovanni in Chapter 17 of The American

Abstract

Abstract: James scholarship sees chapter 17 of The American , which takes place at a performance of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni , as particularly significant. However, a fundamental error about Don Giovanni has led to erroneous conclusions. The error is that Don Giovanni as performed during the 19th century was different from this opera as performed recently. Nevertheless, even the most historically informed criticism on chapter 17 has fallen prey to incorrect assumptions due to not taking into consideration the opera’s performance history. Considering the chapter in light of this performance history leads to a re-interpretation of the characterization of Christopher Newman and of Urbain de Bellegarde.