Notes On Opera
Well, it is a powerful art form; there are some who argue it is the greatest form of art, combining music and drama, offering moments of intense emotion; but just keep in mind that it is secular music.
I believe when many people say it is the “greatest form of art”, they mean that in terms of the combination of music and drama, as you said. Most people know that it is only secular music. I believe all of the people here on the thread already have that in mind while discussing this. All of the artists involved know there is a major difference in the art form of opera and in the sacred music that they many times have performed. And both have a different approach, respect and form of reverence. (I don’t mean reverence in a spiritual sense for opera).
Talking about the state of opera, be wary of some of the more modern opera productions on video.
This type of thing of untasteful productions have been going on since the 70s. Both my current teacher and former teacher have complained to me about having to perform in some ridiculous avant garde productions - not necessarily nude - but strange or distasteful. My teacher was in Salzburg this past summer for a vacation. I can’t remember which opera it was (she saw all of them at the festival), but she was very upset over the production. She said that the director had put his/her own twist to the opera by dressing someone up like a pope (which isn’t even a character in this opera) and making him look immoral in the opera. Mind you that my teacher isn’t even Catholic, but she was very upset at the disrespect this director showed to the Catholic Church and who she believed was supposed to be Benedict. She said that the opera didn’t even have anything to do with the Church - it was as if this director just wanted to put some kind of dig and used this form as an outlet for his animosity towards her (the Church).
Other productions, like Franco Zeffirelli’s La Traviata…
I love Zeffirelli’s stage productions. He’s a genius at it, but I tend to like the more traditional sets which is probably why I love his productions. I don’t know… trying to put Mozart operas in avant garde or modern garbe, just doesn’t work for me, especially when you know the libretto and the jokes, etc. The only time I’ve seen it work was for the Met’s new production of “Die Zauberflote” - but I believe it is because that it is supposed to be a fantastical land anyway.
Mozart’s The Magic Flute: Watch Tomino become a Freemason before your very eyes and the Hapsburg monarchy and everything it stands for (indirectly Catholicism) satirized through the character the Queen of the Night.
I’m not going to dispute that Mozart was a mason, although back then, almost every adult male in Vienna were masons and for only connections reasons and were still practicing Catholic - they didn’t understand that relatively new ban about 30-40 years earlier on being one and the people then apparently weren’t properly educated about it. But that’s for another thread.
Mozart’s Don Giovanni: The legendary lecher is dragged to Hell, UNREPENTANT in the key of D Minor, and is in a way made to seem heroic. Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, who basically gave up being a Catholic priest (I don’t think he ever formally left the priesthood though; his family converted to Catholicism I believe for societal and social reasons).
ahh… well, he wouldn’t be dragged to hell, but to purgatory if he was repentant.
That wouldn’t make for a good “secular” story of revenge for the women he destroyed and the people he murdered. I’ve never and I know many others who never looked at him as being heroic. We always think he got his just desserts. Plus the opera, if the opera was going to just focus on Giovanni, would have ended there. It doesn’t. It keeps going on afterwards. Mozart focused on the relationships and outlooks of the people left on earth, how they were either redeemed, avenged and how they handled their trust issues with each other, especially amongst the couples affected by D. Giovanni’s misdeeds.
Da Ponte was adopted by a bishop when he was a young boy and took his name. He should have never become a priest, but back in that time when a family would give a child to the Church, it was expected of them to become a priest or religious. No doubt, he led not-so-great of life and was eventually expelled from the empire, ending up in NYC at one point. Also, Da Ponte based “Don Giovanni” on the real-life lecher, Cassanova, as he personally knew Cassavova, not surprisingly.
Also remember that opera is musical drama and symphonic music is symphonic music, so the two forms of music are different.
Yes, for obvious reasons.
