|
(back on topic
again, GG appears.)
Hiya Eric!
What I got from
"Amadeus" was that Schaffer was suggesting that "Don
Giovanni" is Mozart's artistic _expression_/explosion/catharsis of his very
difficult personality struggles with his overbearing "puppet-master"
father Leopold, whose threats and curses become il Commendatore -- Don
Giovanni's (and Mozart's) mortal enemy both in life and, as a ghost, after
death. If that's even slightly true, who needs Freud to highlight the psychic
meaning of il Commendatore's murder?
We've spoken here that a lot of Glenn Gould's hostility
against Mozart can be traced less to his feelings about the music, than about
GG's somewhat "up-tight" and puritanical personality, and his
instinctive disapproval of Mozart's obvious hedonism and cavalier attitude about
life and work. Parents don't live forever, and Schaffer seemed to be suggesting
that their failure to resolve their differences while they both lived became an
even worse torment and guilt trip for Mozart after Leopold's death. Mozart had
the most natural son's obsession to please his father, but never could, and to
make matters worse, Leopold was an excellent musician and so consequently had a
large vocabulary of expert complaints that must have wounded Wolfgang especially
deeply.
Mozart, in his own quirky Bohemian way, seems to have been a
sweet and loving husband to Constanz and a good father -- if not a particularly
reliable breadwinner. I don't think he could reach directly into his own rather
sweet and goofy personality to create the vile monster Don Giovanni -- but he
could with the "help" of the condemnations and accusations of his
father Leopold.
How did GG and his dad get along? Was the dynamic smooth and
supportive and loving? Or rocky and tumultuous? It's sort of sad when great
artistic achievement can be traced back to a messy, unpleasant family dynamic,
but it's a common, old, old story.
I will certainly take your advice at the earliest opportunity
and see DG performed by things that sings without strings!
Don Elmero
PS. I was surfing an astronomy site, and guess who's got a
minor planet named after him? Planet Fisher-Dieskau, which I guess wanders
around in all the rubble between Mars and Jupiter! The mark of immortality, he
dwelleth in the Heavens! Should we start lobbying the Astronomical Authorities
for Constellation or Galaxy or Comet Gould?
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