Margaret Mikulska:

>...  I saw all three Da Ponte/Sellars (if I may call them so) Mozart
>operas and I too find them sophomoric.

I liked two of the three very much.

>Such stagings don't add anything to the operas; on the contrary, by
>being taken out of their historical context, the operas lose a lot.

No question, but they also gained a lot.  At least, *I* thought so.

>No, the themes are by and large not universal, they are deeply rooted
>in the history and their times.

If they're not universal, why do *we* care?

>For instance, a lot of the action and plot of "Le nozze di Figaro"
>revolves around the (fictitious but highly symbolic for the Enlightenment
>era people) ius primae noctis.

It wasn't lost for me, because I had no idea it was missing.  Is "ius
primae noctis" Latin for "droit du seigneur?" If so, I contend that it's
precisely for that reason that the Sellars staging in the Trump Towers
works.  "Droit du seigneur" is something a modern American doesn't quite
comprehend.  Sexual harrassment is.

Steve Schwartz