A Lukewarm Descent Into the Eternal Flames

schaldenbrand_small.jpgBy FRED KIRSHNIT [NY Sun, 28 March 2006]
Although Beethoven considered “The Magic Flute” to be the greatest opera ever written, many devotees, including Sigmund Freud, reserve that honor for “Don Giovanni.” A unique combination of opera seria and opera buffa, it expresses the most elemental of human emotions more profoundly than any other musical work.