Christopher Webber wrote:

>Here is the new paradox - the music is fossilised, the staging provides
>the impetus.  For theatre is a living art form.  We simply cannot reproduce
>the old conventions of a bygone age - if you tried to stage "Don Giovanni"
>with the fidelity to Da Ponte's directions demanded by Mr Templiner you
>would have something which would be a mixture of the risible and the
>incomprehensible to modern theatrical and aesthetic tastes.  [...]

I don't see why.  One of the absolutely best, most impressive, and most
riveting operatic performances I saw was Lully's Thesee staged last year
at BEMF in the most historically informed way - it was really an attempt
at staging Lully as faithfully as possible.  (Minus the candles, which the
fire marshall wouldn't allow.) It was neither risible not incomprehensible.
Quite to the contrary.  If we remain faithful to the libretto and the
costumes (which isn't all that rare), why can't we try to remain faithful
to the rest of the staging?

Should we give Don Giovanni an electric guitar instead of mandolin?

-Margaret Mikulska