Thursday, December 1, 2011

Don Giovanni (1787)

Mozart (1756-91), Furtwangler, 1954, Cesare Siepi as Don Juan

Gustave Flaubert is said to have placed this opera, along with Hamlet and the sea, as the three finest things created by God. Be that as it may, it is a heady amalgam of rich music, drama, comedy, poetry, song, morality merging with overtones of the mystery of life and death. Don Giovanni is a primitive human bereft of conscience only driven by his own boundless desire. As he piles his list of amorous conquests destiny begins to catch up and the drama concludes with a stunning climax. Siepi in the title role gives a majestic performance of the unrepentant retrograde. Mozart's music undulates like waves merging with the script and giving voice to the  human emotion.

CLIP

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