Sir John Tavener

Mozart sees the divine in everything. He hears God everywhere and he sings His ecstasy in every single one of his operatic characters, from Sarastro to Papageno, to the Countess in Figaro and to Don Giovanni himself. He cannot help himself for, like the eternal child that he is, he never ceases to celebrate the ecstatic act of being.

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And follow this link for an interpretation of Vedrai carino, in which “Zerlina, by offering her beating heart to Masetto, becomes the heartbeat of God seen through the eyes of a child.”

Originally published in Temenos Academy Review 8 (2005), pp. 140-2. Copyright © The Estate of Sir John Tavener. Republished here with thanks.