tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post1279284904871540339..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Don Giovanni and Falstaff: choicesDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-87241000811516781942016-10-22T11:10:52.711+01:002016-10-22T11:10:52.711+01:00Agreed. Or at least it is more about the havoc wro...Agreed. Or at least it is more about the havoc wrought on society by such a bad hombre.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-51842864044630660832016-10-22T05:35:14.926+01:002016-10-22T05:35:14.926+01:00Anyone who omits the post Don Giovanni musical com...Anyone who omits the post Don Giovanni musical commentary is seriously in error. The opera is not a story about a naughty manDavid Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-22473432774724844262016-10-21T20:54:41.844+01:002016-10-21T20:54:41.844+01:00Indeed - and Kasper Holten omitted it, I'm tol...Indeed - and Kasper Holten omitted it, I'm told, in the revival of his not (to me) at all persuasive Royal Opera production. First time round the 'survivors' were behind a screen as if they didn't matter in any case.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-37482848326726729632016-10-21T20:31:48.269+01:002016-10-21T20:31:48.269+01:00There was a period ( was it the late 19th century?...There was a period ( was it the late 19th century?) when the post Don Giovanni part was omitted. <br /><br />I suppose I emphasis that trio as so few others do. I am emphasising it as an amazing psychological insight. David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-59738510596975778662016-10-21T20:15:00.714+01:002016-10-21T20:15:00.714+01:00Well, it's the one you always bring up as the ...Well, it's the one you always bring up as the epitome of Mozart;s genius.<br /><br />Remember that the Act 2 Finale must always go on after Don Giovanni's disappearance, and that the music of the 'remainers' is also fabulous. Dramatically Warner makes it work too.<br /><br />Act 2 of Tito has that sense of at-one-with-the-world which is unique to late Mozart. Idomeneo, although his first operaratic masterpiece, isn't at one with anything.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-57754925248216867122016-10-21T20:07:07.948+01:002016-10-21T20:07:07.948+01:00My feeling always is the La Clemenza di Tito is an...My feeling always is the La Clemenza di Tito is an early work, before his real genius had crystallised.....but of course it was not. Very odd. I think some bits ( arias) of Tito could have been better written by Handel<br /><br />If one is looking for some recognition of ultimate reality ( in so far as we can see anything of it whilst this muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close it in) then Klemperer was right about the finale of Don Giovanni.<br /><br />If your reference to "trio" was to the trio when the Commendatore was dying, I do not elevate that to being my personal highest point - but its analysis of the human predicament is beyond all competition. We will die, we see others dying, it is all thereDavid Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-79796511436169882212016-10-21T17:54:36.816+01:002016-10-21T17:54:36.816+01:00The trouble is that whenever Mozart did something ...The trouble is that whenever Mozart did something transcendent in his later years, he went and trumped it by something else transcendent in a different way. He met the demands of each drama at the highest level throughout - that goes for Cosi and Magic Flute, and even La Clemenza di Tito.<br /><br />But I take Klemperer's essential point.<br /><br />Yes, good point about his essential talent - which in the DVD seems akin to hypnosis.<br /><br />I know that trio is your own personal high point in the Mozart oeuvre. But I could cite so many others, and not want to choose between them. A personal favourite is something else, and mine's Cosi. Yet when I see a perfect Figaro, or a Don Giovanni that works, or a Magic Flute that has me in floods of tears at the happiest moments, I'm not sure...Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-8067661638694997052016-10-21T17:48:08.934+01:002016-10-21T17:48:08.934+01:00" Don Giovanni is the opera of operas - in Mo..." Don Giovanni is the opera of operas - in Mozart's work it is the climax and not only of his operatic compositions" - such was the conclusion of Otto Klemperer, who added that for him " the most important scene in Don Giovanni is the great confrontation with the Commendatore in the second finale......This scene is unique in the literature of the world. The music comes from the remote distance. Every epithet seems to me inapposite"<br /><br />I could add the comment of others that, although Don Giovanni is unsuccessful in his seductions in the opera, his aria when he meets Zerlina demonstrates his overwhelming talent when he sets out to seduce a woman.<br /><br />The eighteen bars when the Commendatore is dying also display the trancendent genius that Mozart possessedDavid Damantnoreply@blogger.com