Opera thread

[Pekka]

wtf.. I think I got pwned.

Well, thanks for the answers.. OK then.. what's the biggest sum of money you've paid to get into a show (is show OK word to use for opera?) and where it was and what did you go see?

[Boris Godunov]

I spent about $80 for a ticket to see Boris Godunov (who would have thought?) at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It was an amazing production designed by Andrei Tarkovsky shortly before he died and it has since toured around the world. American basso Samuel Ramey was in the title role, and I got to meet him backstage thanks to a friend of mine who was in the chorus. It was certainly the most memorable opera production I've seen.

And I don't really use "show" for opera performances, but there's nothing wrong with saying it.

[Bereta_Eder]

In the movie "Amadeus" , after Mozart's father had died, Mozart is depicted to have written his "darkest" opera. The movie said that his father even though he was now dead he was haunting him from the grave blah blah.

Is that true? Meaning, did Mozart write an opera which was his darkest one after his father died, and if so what is the name of that opera?
Thanks.

[Nostromo]

Requiem

[Bereta_Eder]

Ok. Thanks.
I already have it then.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by paiktis22
In the movie "Amadeus" , after Mozart's father had died, Mozart is depicted to have written his "darkest" opera. The movie said that his father even though he was now dead he was haunting him from the grave blah blah.

Is that true? Meaning, did Mozart write an opera which was his darkest one after his father died, and if so what is the name of that opera?
Thanks.

The problem with that is that Leopold died in 1787 and the Requiem wasn't started until 1791.

Amadeus is a fantasy based upon the life of Mozart, *not* a biopic.

[Boris Godunov]

Nope, that's not the Requiem. That's Don Giovanni.

In the opera, Don G. tries to sexually assault one Donna Anna. Her father, the Commendatore, intervenes, and Giovanni kills him in a fight. In the 2nd act, Giovanni finds himself in a cemetary with the life-sized statue of the Commendatore at his grave. He mockingly invites the statue to dinner. At the end, the statue shows up, demands Giovanni repent of his wickedness, and then drags the Don off to Hell when said repentance is refused.

So in Amadeus, the notion is that, after Leopold dies, Mozart conceives of the Commendatore as representing his father, and the final scene of the opera is basically his father coming on stage to accuse Mozart of being a libertine who caused his father's demise.

There's utterly no basis for this connection, however. And Don Giovanni isn't really "dark" opera. The Commendatore scene is quite terrifying, but overall the opera is comedic in tone and it ends with an upbeat epilogue wherein all the other characters moralize over the Don's demise.

The movie depicts the Requiem as being Salieri's plot to drive Mozart into madness/death once Salieri has realized the father connection in Don Giovanni. So he shows up an a costume reminiscent of the mask Leopold wore at the costume party they had attended before he dies, and commissions the work.

In reality, the Requiem was commissioned by a nobleman who kept his identity secret because he hoped to erase Mozart's name from it and claim he wrote it himself. Plan didn't work, however, as Mozart died before it was completed, and nobody would have believed the nobleman wrote such a thing, anyway.

[Nostromo]

My bad

[JohnT]

Amadeus kind of compresses the time period, but you're right - it was Don Giovanni that the film linked to Leopolds death.

The Requiem was also linked to Leopold in the film, especially in Salieri's use of the same costume mask that Leopold used at the party.

[JohnT]

The above post is what happens when you don't read replies as thoroughly as you should.

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Nope, that's not the Requiem. That's Don Giovanni.

In the opera, Don G. tries to sexually assault one Donna Anna. Her father, the Commendatore, intervenes, and Giovanni kills him in a fight. In the 2nd act, Giovanni finds himself in a cemetary with the life-sized statue of the Commendatore at his grave. He mockingly invites the statue to dinner. At the end, the statue shows up, demands Giovanni repent of his wickedness, and then drags the Don off to Hell when said repentance is refused.

So in Amadeus, the notion is that, after Leopold dies, Mozart conceives of the Commendatore as representing his father, and the final scene of the opera is basically his father coming on stage to accuse Mozart of being a libertine who caused his father's demise.

There's utterly no basis for this connection, however. And Don Giovanni isn't really "dark" opera. The Commendatore scene is quite terrifying, but overall the opera is comedic in tone and it ends with an upbeat epilogue wherein all the other characters moralize over the Don's demise.

The movie depicts the Requiem as being Salieri's plot to drive Mozart into madness/death once Salieri has realized the father connection in Don Giovanni. So he shows up an a costume reminiscent of the mask Leopold wore at the costume party they had attended before he dies, and commissions the work.

In reality, the Requiem was commissioned by a nobleman who kept his identity secret because he hoped to erase Mozart's name from it and claim he wrote it himself. Plan didn't work, however, as Mozart died before it was completed, and nobody would have believed the nobleman wrote such a thing, anyway.

Thanks!
I'll just stick with the rekviem then (too difficult to try and spell it correctly in latin alphabet )