"Una Vendetta in Domino" -- weird coincidences
In the quatralingual booklet for my CD of Verdi's full opera "Un Ballo in Maschera" (A Masked Ball), it gives a bit of the history of the opera. (I must have read this part of the booklet before, because there was a cat whisker there as a bookmark (yes: strange: me).)
Verdi originally named the opera "Una Vendetta in Domino" -- then later renamed (after pressure from the Italian censors forced him to change setting, plot and characters!) it "Un Ballo in Maschera." Vendetta? Domino? A masked ball?
AND (it gets freakier) "Una vendetta in domino" means "a vendetta in [according to Dictionary.com] a large, hooded cloak with a mask covering the eyes, worn at masquerades." Dictionary.com goes on to define "domino2" as "2. the mask. and 3. a person wearing such dress." It cites [Origin: 1710-20; < It: hood and mask costume < ML or MF: black hood worn by priests in winter; obscurely akin to L dominus lord] and goes on to say in the domino1 definition [French, probably from domino, mask, perhaps because of the resemblance between the eyeholes and the spots on some of the tiles; see domino2.]
(I haven't read anything in the GN notes or the articles I've read about VfV (GN or film) to suggest that Alan Moore, David Lloyd, or anyone involved with the production of the GN -- or film -- knew the two different meanings of the word domino. Then again, I haven't read anything suggesting any of those people didn't know the two meanings of the word domino.)
I wonder if anyone involved in either the GN or the film knew about Verdi's original title for the opera "A Masked Ball"? I doubt it -- plot-wise, they are worlds apart. But. It's. Interesting.
Verdi originally named the opera "Una Vendetta in Domino" -- then later renamed (after pressure from the Italian censors forced him to change setting, plot and characters!) it "Un Ballo in Maschera." Vendetta? Domino? A masked ball?
AND (it gets freakier) "Una vendetta in domino" means "a vendetta in [according to Dictionary.com] a large, hooded cloak with a mask covering the eyes, worn at masquerades." Dictionary.com goes on to define "domino2" as "2. the mask. and 3. a person wearing such dress." It cites [Origin: 1710-20; < It: hood and mask costume < ML or MF: black hood worn by priests in winter; obscurely akin to L dominus lord] and goes on to say in the domino1 definition [French, probably from domino, mask, perhaps because of the resemblance between the eyeholes and the spots on some of the tiles; see domino2.]
(I haven't read anything in the GN notes or the articles I've read about VfV (GN or film) to suggest that Alan Moore, David Lloyd, or anyone involved with the production of the GN -- or film -- knew the two different meanings of the word domino. Then again, I haven't read anything suggesting any of those people didn't know the two meanings of the word domino.)
I wonder if anyone involved in either the GN or the film knew about Verdi's original title for the opera "A Masked Ball"? I doubt it -- plot-wise, they are worlds apart. But. It's. Interesting.