Saturday, January 06, 2007
mozart's librettos
I just read the first half of a New Yorker piece from this past week about new books on Mozart's librettist and the ongoing debate about how much of a role Mozart played in the writing of Marriage of Figaro, Cosà fan Tutte and Don Giovanni. And I thought, this could not matter less. It's like arguing whether Mom or Dad had the greater hand in deciding what color to paint the kitchen. Who cares? And yet, for all that inconsequentiality (if that's not a word, it should be), it's so interesting to so many people. Why?
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2 comments:
How do people create something new in the world? What circumstances give rise to creativity? Might we appreciate works like Mozart's more if we understood better the milieu in which he/they lived and worked? I thought it was cool to learn that Mozart's librettist emigrated to America and lived in NYC. Who knew that? Or that he taught Italian literature at Columbia College? Or was such a disappointed crank?
all good points, dad. guess i hadn't really thought about it very hard.
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