Sunday, October 22, 2006

"You're Going to Hell"

Mozart. Great singers. Great staging.

The Commandatore scene from Don Giovanni (Don Juan)--as the Commandatore drags Don Giovanni to Hell (avenging Giovanni's rape and murder of the Commandatore's daughter.)

It's in Italian--but you don't need to know a syllable of the language to get the idea--which is exactly how really Good Stuff in music works.

Commandatore's almost single-note singing is insistent--imperious...Giovanni's punchy pleading...and near the end, the voices of the damned...and the descending (heh) scales...

And in D minor (also used by Mozart for the Dies Irae in the Requiem.)

HT: Captain's Quarters.

1 comment:

Brother James said...

Last night, I recorded a concert featuring the Lacrimosa from Requiem, a portion of the "vespers"work, and “Ave Verum.” All that, in a Seventh Day Adventist church, no less.
Last spring, a UCC church in my area did the entire Vespers, and Hadyn's Mass in D min.
Being works written for the Catholic Church, what are the chances that we'll actually hear them in one?