Five Fictional Heroes
With Donald Macleod.
2: Don Juan. The figure of the well born, randy young man who tramples over the conventions of society in pursuit of his own pleasures is an ancient one, but it was a 16th-century Spanish monk who embodied these attributes in the central character of his play about Don Juan , the philanderer of Seville. His intriguing version of the libidinous character in a setting where family honour and female virginity were held almost as precious as religious beliefs appealed to composers for more than 300 years. Including excerpts from:
Mozart Don Giovanni
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, conductor Colin Davis
Gluck Don Juan
Tafelmusik, conductor Bruno Weil Strauss Don Juan
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conductor Herbert Blomstedt