January 24, 2009

Universal leader

The Psychology of Power. Watching Simon Boccanegra with Marshall Ganz.
Boston Globe, January 25, 2009.

The final paragraph was cut for space—it's not absolutely necessary, but I liked the comparison:
“In opera buffa, it usually ends when all the falsity is discovered,” Ganz goes on, “like the end of ‘Figaro,’ where everything is revealed, and all is happy.” But in “Simon Boccanegra,” falsity and division have done too much damage. “The truth is all revealed here, too, and I guess it’s redemptive, but it’s too late for a truly happy ending. It’s part of the price,” Ganz says. “And that’s also part of the truth of the story.”
In addition, one off-topic story: at one point, the discussion got sidetracked into a discussion about The Godfather, which, as it turns out, the entire executive board of the United Farm Workers went and saw one night when it first came out. "For about a year afterwards," Ganz recalled, "every executive board meeting was mostly just acting out scenes from the movie. César [Chávez] used to end every discussion by saying, 'We'll just make them an offer they can't refuse.'"

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