On Sep 23, 2009, at 7:30 PM, Colin West wrote: > >> >> As to the "deus ex machina," presumably the statue, you >> simply fail to grasp the point that the statue cannot possibly >> exist-- >> it is the Commendatore in flesh and blood. If you're talking about >> the >> flames under the trapdoor, that's a clever stage effect but no sort >> of >> deus ex machina. > No, the idea that the Commendatore returns from the dead is what I > mean by deus ex machina. > The point is that the Commendatore's "death" was a stage play. The fake blood represents "real" fake blood
Do you imagine that Donna Anna, who is on a first-name basis with Giovanni (she and Ottavio address him as "Don Giovanni," not the formal "Don Giovanni Tenorio") wouldn't recognize him in her bed? Do you imagine that Don Giovanni and the Commendatore were not part of the Sevillan aristocratic circle as well as neighbors? >>> and Giovanni himself, although reputedly something of a roué, >>> entirely fails to seduce anyone in the entire opera. >> He certainly succeeds with Zerlina and also with Elvira (at the start >> of Act II), though indeed neither of those ladies is reluctant in the >> slightest degree! > Oh? Elvira is led away by Leperetto and then Giovanni tries to > seduce Elvira's maid and is interrupted. And it's Elvira's arrival in > Act I that thwarts Giovanni's seduction of Zerlina. >>> thwarts *consummation*, not seduction. The seduction in their heads is portrayed by the music as Elvira starts to go off with Leporello and Zerlina with Giovanni. And as to consummation: I've mentioned Anna, now consider also that clock time can often flow quite a bit faster than operatic time. In the Act I finale how short, "really," was the time between Zerlina accompanying Giovanni offstage and her scream? >>> Further, 'liberty' and 'libertine' may be cognates but only in >>> English. In German it would have been 'Freiheit' and (I think) >>> 'Wüstling' ["Wüstling" is only one of the three possible >>> equivalents. The other two, per Cassel, are "römische >>> Freigelassener" and "Freidenker"] so I don't see how that works. Freidenker, free-thinker, is the sense of libertine found in the title of the original Don Juan play--*El Burlador de Sevilla*. Mozart, of course, as a Mason and friend of Da Ponte and Casanova, was most certainly a *freidenker*. Shane Mage > This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it > always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, > kindling in measures and going out in measures." > > Herakleitos of Ephesos ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
