For the Love of Mozart

"A new world of love and beauty broke upon her when she was introduced to those divine compositions: this lady had the keenest and finest sensibility, and how could she be indifferent when she heard Mozart? The tender parts of Don Juan awakened in her raptures so exquisite that she would ask herself when she went to say her prayers of a night, whether it was not wicked to feel so much delight as that with which Vedrai Carino and Batti, Batti filled her gentle little bosom? But the major, whom she consulted upon this head, as her theological advisor (and who himself had a pious and reverent soul), said that for his part, every beauty of art or nature made him thankful as well as happy; and that the pleasure to be had in listening to fine music, as in looking at the stars in the sky, or at a beautiful landscape or picture, was a benefit for which he might thank Heaven as sincerely as for any other worldly blessing."

Vanity Fair, chapter 62 ("Am Rhein") page 613

For anyone who may be unaware, these two arias are from Mozart's Don Giovanni. Does anyone out there love the opera as much as I do? One of my favorite memories is from college when I went on a "study tour" in Austria, Italy, and France. A few of my musically-minded friends and I went to see an opera at the Vienna State Opera House. L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) by Gaetano Donizetti. Standing room only. Crammed in like a bunch of sardines. But, oh my heavens. Talk about awakening raptures so exquisite. If you ever get the chance to go to an opera, jump on it.

17 March 2008 : snapped during intermission