Till Death Do Us Part: aka, Don Giovanni
Obviously, loved it.
But I laughed so hard. For one thing, Bolero? Really? It's sort of a joke among musicians. Strings players hate it because their parts are so boring. Snare players love and hate it because their arms cramp up. Playing the exact same rhythm for fifteen minutes, perfectly, is exhausting. I played celesta for it once, and I was near the snare player, and he was sweating.
In musicology circles, though, it's generally accepted that Bolero (written by Maurice Ravel) is really, really sexual. Without getting overly explicit, it's a steady rising crescendo for like 13 minutes, a huge explosive burst, and then ends with a bang. Those trombone slides are just raunchy. By the time you hit the huge dazzling key change, you feel like you're buzzing with tension, though you're not sure why. It ends with a huge wash of sound, releasing the tension. And you feel like you want a cigarette. So yeah. Roommate and I both laughed at that. (Listen to it here, conducted by the amazing Daniel Barenboim.)
But the episode itself WAS Don Giovanni. In the broadest sense, the idea of the lothario is spot-on, with his two Leporello-like wingmen. And that Israeli flight attendant? - the crazed ex who's desperate to find him? - yeah, that's Donna Elvira.
The most beautiful thing was the book. His little sex book? Yeah. That doesn't just exist in the opera. It gets a whole damn aria. It's commonly called "The Catalog Aria," though its proper title is Madamina, il catologo e questo, I think. It is absolutely hilarious. And in it, Leporello patiently explains to Donna Elvira that he has this book, in which he keeps track of how many women Giovanni sleeps with in each country, how he likes all kinds of women, what he says to get them into bed. At the end, he finally just says Purche porti la gonella, voi sapete quel che fa: basically, that translates to If it wears a skirt...you know what he does to it.
See the lovely Luca Pisaroni performing it here. Subtitles are in French. The words are very funny; here's the English text if you want to read along.
Yep. Aside from the cute and the tease, this episode gets an A+ for (possibly unintentional) opera references.
But I laughed so hard. For one thing, Bolero? Really? It's sort of a joke among musicians. Strings players hate it because their parts are so boring. Snare players love and hate it because their arms cramp up. Playing the exact same rhythm for fifteen minutes, perfectly, is exhausting. I played celesta for it once, and I was near the snare player, and he was sweating.
In musicology circles, though, it's generally accepted that Bolero (written by Maurice Ravel) is really, really sexual. Without getting overly explicit, it's a steady rising crescendo for like 13 minutes, a huge explosive burst, and then ends with a bang. Those trombone slides are just raunchy. By the time you hit the huge dazzling key change, you feel like you're buzzing with tension, though you're not sure why. It ends with a huge wash of sound, releasing the tension. And you feel like you want a cigarette. So yeah. Roommate and I both laughed at that. (Listen to it here, conducted by the amazing Daniel Barenboim.)
But the episode itself WAS Don Giovanni. In the broadest sense, the idea of the lothario is spot-on, with his two Leporello-like wingmen. And that Israeli flight attendant? - the crazed ex who's desperate to find him? - yeah, that's Donna Elvira.
The most beautiful thing was the book. His little sex book? Yeah. That doesn't just exist in the opera. It gets a whole damn aria. It's commonly called "The Catalog Aria," though its proper title is Madamina, il catologo e questo, I think. It is absolutely hilarious. And in it, Leporello patiently explains to Donna Elvira that he has this book, in which he keeps track of how many women Giovanni sleeps with in each country, how he likes all kinds of women, what he says to get them into bed. At the end, he finally just says Purche porti la gonella, voi sapete quel che fa: basically, that translates to If it wears a skirt...you know what he does to it.
See the lovely Luca Pisaroni performing it here. Subtitles are in French. The words are very funny; here's the English text if you want to read along.
Yep. Aside from the cute and the tease, this episode gets an A+ for (possibly unintentional) opera references.