Unfair to the Bushes, but the Kennedy comparison is brilliant. I would have welcomed a production based on the Michael (was it Michael) Kennedy Smith trial.
What a terrific essay and discussion! Being familiar with Molière and having listened to the music (the wonderful Giulini production) I of course misread DG, but mainly I misread Don Ottavio. (Luigi Alva sings him as sweet, almost weak, especially in Dalla Sua Pace, a surprisingly modern aria presaging Verdi; I'm not sure Fritz Wunderlich ever performed Ottavio onstage but he sings this properly as a Heldentenor.)
In the case of Don Giovanni as of Figaro, da Ponte adapts controversial French plays (each, in its century, had serious problems wit the censors' office) with a social message. What does it say that he alters it, even more in Don Giovanni?
Re: Thank you!
Unfair to the Bushes, but the Kennedy comparison is brilliant. I would have welcomed a production based on the Michael (was it Michael) Kennedy Smith trial.
What a terrific essay and discussion! Being familiar with Molière and having listened to the music (the wonderful Giulini production) I of course misread DG, but mainly I misread Don Ottavio. (Luigi Alva sings him as sweet, almost weak, especially in Dalla Sua Pace, a surprisingly modern aria presaging Verdi; I'm not sure Fritz Wunderlich ever performed Ottavio onstage but he sings this properly as a Heldentenor.)
In the case of Don Giovanni as of Figaro, da Ponte adapts controversial French plays (each, in its century, had serious problems wit the censors' office) with a social message. What does it say that he alters it, even more in Don Giovanni?