Margaret Mikulska on ignoring librettists' stage directions:

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

Why not?  Didn't Peter Sellars do just that?

To me, it depends.  I've seen crummy "faithful" productions and crummy
re-interpretations.  I've seen good instances of both as well.  It seems
to matter who's directing and who's performing.

Steve Schwartz