Don Giovanni in Welsh

Aha! We have a bass in our midst. Da iawn, Huw. I’ll bet it was fun to sing Sarastro.

It was for an exam. I sang “In Diesen Heilgen Hallen / Within these hallowed portals” and “Isis und Osiris”. I only learned years later of the Masonic ( and misogynistic) nature of the opera but the music was/is beautiful and yes, it was fun. :smile: Not sure I coud do justice to either now, though.

I have no problem with the ethics of Don Giovanni though - seems a thoroughly splendid chap. :smiling_imp:

Huw Jones, That’s funny, but I shouldn’t check my emails while drinking tea. It’s not good for my computer screen. Relationship ethics were a bit lax back in the don’s time, she said tongue firmly in cheek. Today, Elvira would report him, he’d take a scourging on social media and go to jail. Leporello’s book and 1003 Spanish ladies would be used as evidence to convict him. That’s in addition to murder. Well, that’s almost as good as a trip to Hell, and a tad juicier and even more melodramatic than Da Ponti ever thought of. :rofl:

1 Like

And me! I’m looking forward to it. I hope it’s not too far to walk from the station. I’d better check that out :grin:

EDIT: According to Google it’s only a 3 minute walk, so perfect, but does anyone have any idea how long it’s likely to be? Or perhaps I’d better ring Opra Cymru and ask them. The last train back to Caerdydd will be 22:38

It’s very close to the bus station. A little walk from the railway station, I think you have to walk through the shopping centre.
Cricky that’s early! They tend to not be very long, they don’t do the arias twice and they’re not doing Wagner [alas!]. I was planning on getting on the train, we should check.

I’ve sent a message through to Opra Cymru to ask about the length of the performance.

1 Like

You’ve got a real treat in store if you’re got a ticket for this opera! The young singers and musicians were fantastic, and I understood far more of it in Welsh than I would have done in Italian. The only thing I didn’t get was why women would fall for Don Giovanni when they could have had Leporello. But then no-one said opera has to make sense.

P.S. The opera lasted just under two and a half hours, including rapturous applause.

3 Likes

I’m really looking forward to it now @BronwenLewis and if it’s just under 2.5 hours we should be fine for the train back to Caerdydd :slight_smile:

EDIT: In fact there’s a message from Opra Cymru today saying they expect it will finish by around 9:45 in Merthyr so shouldn’t be an issue with the train @Y_Ddraig_Las