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
Reichhold
Sr. R & D Synthesis Chemist
P.O. Box 13582
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
USA
Phone: +1 919 990 8116
Mobile: +1 919 949 5191
Fax: +1 919 767 8506
E-mail:eric.cline@reichhold.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Elmer Elevator [mailto:bobmer.javanet@RCN.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 3:42 PM
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: [F_MINOR] OT: Puppet blood is not pretty! Puppeblut ist nicht schoene!

Hi Jost (and admirers of Puppet Opera everywhere),

Boyoboy, you are right! Two years ago we bought our tickets late and "Zauberflote" was sold out, so we saw "Don Giovanni" instead. We thought we were just getting Second Prize.

It was FABULOUS!

I have never seen DG performed by humans, only puppets. And it was so very strange ... it emphasized the deeply schizophrenic nature of this story -- is it comedy? Or is it the darkest, most perverse tragedy?

No amount of Leporello's clowning, and no beautiful "love" duets, can disguise the fact that Don is one Very Sick Individual -- a nasty, murderous old rapist pervert using naive young maidens so he can pretend that he is still young and handsome. He has no conscience -- and Leporello must do the best he can to protect the innocent from his master's vile perversions.

Puppets or not, I was actually deeply frightened and disturbed by the final scene -- by what finally happens to DG. (Sorry, I cannot reveal the Surprise Ending to my friends.) It's very terrifying. The color of this opera is funny, but this is not a funny story.

You bet kids would enjoy DG -- it's as violent as anything on TV and the movies. But I wonder what kinds of questions they ask their parents after the show. "Why does he act like that?" "What's wrong with that guy?" And I wonder how mothers and fathers answer these questions. It is a strange introduction to the strange, confusing world of adult love.

Of the Salzburg marionette version, there is a moment, when Leporello shows a maiden DG's foul diary of his conquests, that is SO FUNNY, just about the funniest thing I have ever seen in theater. What a rich, remarkable evening. And when the curtain falls, the puppetmasters/puppetmistresses come to take their bow, all dressed in black like ten ninjas. What a wonderful job that must be! Who could possibly complain about being a Salzburg Marionetter? It's like dying and going to heaven, I think.

Puppet blood is not a pretty sight. Dead puppets and sawdust all over the stage, tangled strings everywhere!

Elmer

PS. Did I mention that guy Mozart's tunes? They were pretty spiffy, too!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jost Ammon <jammon@gmx.net>
To: Elmer Elevator <bobmer.javanet@RCN.COM>
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 3:12 PM
Subject: Re: [F_MINOR] OT: Salzburg Marionettes on the march!

>On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 04:48:25 -0500
>Elmer Elevator <bobmer.javanet@RCN.COM> wrote:
>
>> Okay, the Salzburg Marionettes just put on the dandiest "Magic Flute"
>
>> The kids, the kids, I think all of us should feel obligated to lure kids into the opera and classical music cult.
>
>We did. They were not interested in Magic Flute.
>
>
>They were interested in Don Giovanni!
>
>Jost