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[F_MINOR] il Commendatore -- but I just call him Papa



(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?
-----Original Message-----
From: Cline, Eric <Eric.Cline@REICHHOLD.COM>
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU <F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: [F_MINOR] OT: Puppet blood is not pretty! Puppeblut ist nicht schoene!

Elmer,

 

I hope you get a chance to see DG with live people someday. There are several fine performances of Don Giovanni available on video / DVD. I have the Karajan / Samuel Ramey on DVD - and it is not bad, however, I really liked the Haitink / Glyndborne Festival performance much better. The staging of the final scene in the Haitink version is quite intense. Alas, as a youth, I accidentally taped over my copy. I would love to see this version on DVD. DG is my favorite Mozart opera, with Figaro as my second favorite. I have never been able to really appreciate Die Zauberflote. It has some wonderful music, but the story just doesn't grab me.

 

I read somewhere that Mozart may have modeled the character of Don Giovanni on himself - in that he had a dark admiration for the "rakishness" of the Don. This was alluded to in the film Amadeus.

 

Eric Cline


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