Charles Moyer wrote,

<<    All of this brings me to comment on your stated choice of music as an
uplifter  of the soul. I also love the Beethoven Quartets esp. the later
ones. They seem to have a depth and confidence that simplifies and distills
even the most essential. And of Mozart operas "The Magic Flute" is my
favorite. Someone could make a comparison with Papageno, lock on mouth,to
Pound's Ouan Jin's mouth being erased in the Pisan Cantos , both being a
necessary condition to save the life of the written text or word. Or as
Rabate says in his book, "The per-fection of the Word requires the
disappearance of the subject who utters it." p.148. In other words the poet
as demi-god must save the Word by his own self-sacrifice. "tempus tacendi"?
He may have been anticipating his defense in court also.
    But I would bet "Don Giovanni" is your favorite. Am I right? I must
relate a story about a performance of this opera. As you know the rake must
atone in the end. So in the last scene he descends into hell. At this
particular performance the elevator platform stuck at the point when he was
only half-way down leaving his head and upper torso still revealed. So he
was brought up again and the descent was reattempted only to fail once
again.Whereupon a member of the audience exclaimed for all to hear, "How
wonderful, Hell is full."    >>


I have been listening to and studying Don Giovanni over the past several
months.  It is not my favorite YET, but it may very well turn out to be.

Tastes change and develop.  My favorite Mozart opera has for the longest
time been The Magic Flute ( I especially like the Ingmar Bergman film
version, which might repel some purists because of the Swedish text).  The
direction and cinematography are unsurpassed.

Recently I have become acquainted with the Peter Sellars versions of the
Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.   Right now, my favorite Mozart opera
is the Marriage of Figaro, in part because of the magnificence of Peter
Sellars direction.

Wonderful anecdote about Don Giovanni!

-----Wei


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