Casanova - European fate

Seventh transfer - final

Working on this cycle, I constantly asked myself the question: Casanova - is he a positive hero? It turned out yes. In my conversations with the Casanists of different countries, topics such as personal responsibility, love of freedom, a positive attitude to life were invariably touched upon. Casanova is a European fate. As the music of Antonio Vivaldi, the Venetian, accompanies us in the first program.

Vivaldi - Kyrie Eleison

The beginning of the summer of 1998 is June 4. The two hundredth from the day of the death of Casanova. The Bohemian city of Duktsov is the old Duks. Casanists from around the world gather for a conference.

In the church at the castle of Count Waldstein, where Casanova spent the last years of his life, the conference opens with a Catholic Messa - behind the rest of the soul of the great Venetian. The main clergyman is a bishop. In his speech before the service, he reports that the idea of the Mass belongs to the present by the Dutch professor of the University of Utrecht Marko Lefland - a doctor of theology, Protestant and ... Casanovich.

Duks. Press conference. The journalists' questions are answered by the Patriarch of Casanovists Marco Lefland and Tom Vitelly. I meet Tom for the first time. Before that, I talked with him on the phone and through e -mail. This is a pleasant American middle -aged American, a strong stature, dark -skinned, with bright blue eyes. Tom's father comes from Palermo. On the way from Salt Lake City, Tom visited our studio in Washington, where he recorded answers to my questions. How does a person become a Casanist?

Tom Vitelly:

The paths are very different. In my case, for example ... well, I was a student in college and was looking for a topic for the dissertation. I wanted to do something else, to work in the area, as it seemed to me, indispensable. And I just saw Fellini's film. It was so interested in it that I began to study the memoirs of Casanova. I wrote a dissertation about him from the point of view of a literary critic. Then I began to attract the attitude of Kasanov to the problem of power because, apparently, the proximity of the characters, some kind of affinity played.

Corti

I asked Alexander Stroyev a similar question in our Prague studio.

Straev

For the first time, I read to Casanova at the university and fell under his charm. Casanova is a man of incredible spiritual generosity. This is a person with some inner talent and charm, which acts on a person through texts, through books, through distances, through time. And I bought all the publications of Casanov, which could be found in Russia, but it was possible to find few. Then, in 70s, on Kachalov Street, all books came across at very affordable prices. In addition, it was simply possible to leave a postcard in the store with the words: "If there is some Casanova book, leave it for me."

Here is from everything that was sold there, I bought almost then everything. And he gathered a good Kazanovist library there. And in the 90th year I was the first to publish in Russia, translating it not with Lafort's processing, but from the true text of the History of my life, using the Brockhaus publication.

Corti

The program of programs about Casanov arose at the New Year's table. In the first minutes of the first of January 1998, someone noticed that the coming year is the year of the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Jakomo Casanova and immediately received, as it is called, an indication from above. Yuri Lvovich Gendler, now on a well -deserved rest on Hawaii, and then the director of the Russian service, said: do the cycle. I accepted the order with enthusiasm and began to collect materials. The task was incredibly difficult and time -consuming. And I doubted. Not so much because of the huge mass of literature, artistic works inspired by the image of Casanova, the masses of completely different and even opposite ideas about it. I began to doubt because I was afraid of identification with the character. All of us from early childhood have a tendency to identify ourselves with the heroes of history, literature or cinema. And we no longer know what determines our behavior - our own, so to speak, self, or some kind of paper from paper or celluloid. In the case of Casanova, I was afraid of this identification. As a child, my heroes were undoubtedly positive: Unkas, the last of Mogican, Thomas Mor, Count Montecristo ... And Casanova - is he positive? Oddly enough, it turned out, yes. In my conversations with Casanists, topics such as a sense of personal responsibility, love of freedom, a positive attitude to life were invariably touched upon.

Vivaldi -ConCerto per violino in mi minore, RV281 - 1. Allegro

Italy, Milan. The apartment of the financier and writer Orazio Banyanco. I ask him the question: how do they become Kazanovists?

Bagnasco

A very difficult question ... In a sense, all the writers are Casanists. Because Casanova himself, as a writer, is extremely charming. I don’t know if you were familiar with the Italian writer Leonardo Shash. Shash, as a rule, did not speak, but grumbled. But when it came to Casanov, Shasha enthusiastically and became extremely eloquent. He was a Casanovist to fanaticism. Because he liked this character, so humane, so ... He had many disadvantages ... Dignity was also, but mostly shortcomings. Casanova is a true participant in our human comedy, in which each of us plays a role. But in this comedy Casanova was an actor of the highest class. He reminds me of the character of the Spanish Plutovsky novel - Lasarillo from Tormes. They have a single philosophy with Casanova. The main thing is to live. I think that there is one - picarest - the connection between them. Both vopsrit life as it is, both live today ...

Corti

Here I interrupt Banasisk: is it not because they become cazapers that they feel akin to the character?

Bagnasco

No. Casanists are very different. Affinity? Vice versa. The opposites attract each other. Casanova’s charm primarily affects people of impeccable, logically thinking. In Casanova, they see who they dreamed of being.

Corti

Casanova and Russia. How is Kazanov perceive there? What influence did Casanova exerted on Russian literature? Alexander Stroyev. The recording is made in Paris.

Straev

In Russian classics, it is quite simple. The main text is, of course, Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades”. Pushkin mentioned Casanova several times, which he read, he mentions him in his diaries, and in the “Queen of Spades” he refers to Casanova’s memoirs, says that according to Casanova’s testimony, Saint-Germain was a spy, which corresponds to reality, i.e. And Casanova and Saint-Germain worked for the "secret of the king." This is not even entirely intelligence, it is parallel diplomacy, which personally obeyed Louis XV and his services. Further, of course, from such sincere and enthusiastic admirers of Casanova, this is Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. His brother translated the "Escape from Pyombi", and Fedor Mikhailovich wrote a preface. Brilliantly, in my opinion, introduced Casanov and showed a powerful, strong, charming person. And in some of his works, in my opinion in the "uncle of a dream", there are mentioning that they read the notes of Casanova. And, according to Yarho ... At some point, there is an assumption that the character who expelled demons at the very beginning of the Casanova memoirs -in the first volume -that perhaps he influenced how Dostoevsky’s characters are drawn, there may even be Stavrogin.

Further, of course, this is Marina Tsvetaeva, who devoted two beautiful plays to Casanova. It can be seen how much it shows him to the "ideal man of the 18th century", a fragment of that beautiful era, dying in the 19th century. Therefore, she in “Phoenix” prolongs the time of Casanova’s life so that he would open the door in the 19th century, so that he would try to live there, because Casanova is all in the 18th century and a person who does not want, cannot die. She creates the image of Phoenix, which should be revived all the time. And here, of course, she very accurately felt just some things from Casanova.

Vivaldi - Concerto Per Viooloncello in Re Minore, RV407, 1. Allegro

Corti

June 4, 1998. I have been going from Prague with my colleagues to the north of the Czech Republic - to Duks - Duks of the times of Casanova. Halfway - the city of Terezin. Built at the end of the eighteenth century by Emperor Joseph the Second. Terezin - Theresienstadt - apparently named after the mother of Emperor Maria Teresa. In our century, there were concentration camps for Jews in Terezin. There was a concentration camp for children. The old Austrian fortress was turned into a Gestapo prison. Now in the city center, the Jewish restaurant "Sabra". Pure, cheap, tasty. We stop for lunch. We are informed that during the war there was a hotel and a casino for the SS men. Passing through the city, we are looking for a poster with my eyes, which I read about in the newspapers. It is supposedly written on it - "Here, in Terezin, there was no racism." We do not find a poster ...

It’s not the Lord that will create a house, in vain, he has worked as a zijuya: if not the Lord will retain a hail, in the vain of the Stregia

Vivaldi, nisi dominus

Once I went to the Dux train. Halfway - twenty kilometers from Terezin - Ust station over Labem. The tragedy of the late twentieth century is played here. In the center of Europe. The mayor of the city with the support of the majority of the population is building a wall, a fence separating white from black. Black here is called gypsies, those who were pursued by the Nazis. Getto for gypsies. In a civilized country, in the middle of Europe. Terizin, Ust-Sna Labem-halfway between civilization and hell. The twentieth century, why is it better than the centuries of Casanov? In the age of Casanova, Cesare Bekkaria writes "On Crimes and Punishments", a book in which he proposes to cancel torture and death penalty. Catherine the Second told her to transfer her from Italian. In Tuscany in the century, torture was canceled and - for the first time in the world - the death penalty, equal rights were granted to all citizens, including Jews, the Inquisition was abolished. The Grand Duke Tuscany was then Leopold, the brother of Joseph the Second - the very one who built the city of Terezin and, of course, the son of Maria Teresa, in whose honor the city was named. After the death of Joseph, Leopold became the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. In this century, the principles of freedom, equality and brotherhood, human rights and citizen are proclaimed. In our century - Holocaust, Terezin. They say - after the war in Terezin, racism was gone. Nearby, in the mouth above Labem, he manifests himself with all his strength.

[The Lord has crushed you to eat on the day of the wrath of His kings]

Vivaldi - Dixit Dominus - Dominus a DEXTRIS TUIS

The question is to the American to Tom Vitelly. What is the situation with the research of Casanova in America. Tom Vitelly from our Washington Studio.

Vitelli

One of the greatest researchers of Casanova at all times, a person who gathered the largest collection of documents about Casanov was an American. His name is James Reeves Childs. He was born in Virginia in 1893. He became a diplomat, he worked in North Africa over the Second World War. There he completed several very difficult tasks. Then he became an ambassador in Saudi Arabia. After he resigned, he sowed in Southern France. He studied Kazanov all his life, all his life he collected materials about him, but he began to write in Southern France. He published a book called Casanova - still the largest bibliography of Casanova’s works and Casanov. He also wrote a biography of Casanova, which was published in 1961. The second, updated edition of this work was released a year after his death - in 1988. This is a giant among the researchers of Casanova, and he is an American. Among the new American researchers, I can name Cynthia Craig at the University of Michigan or David Tubian from the University of Arizona, who wrote a dissertation about Casanov.

Corti

The question of Lydia Flem, Brussels - why did you take up Casanova.

Flem

I love Venice - and this is part of the answer. Working on Freud's biography, I was mainly engaged in the beginning of the twentieth century in Vienna. So Casanova is Venice for me, and this is the pleasure of thinking about the 18th century, namely about love relationships, about the relations of men and women then. Because, contrary to stereotypes, I believe that Casanova is a person who has the art of life, and he shares this art with the women he meets. I have a feeling that the 18th century builds a dam between this art of life and us. I would say that all the relations of men and women in the 20th century, in a certain sense, may not be so far from those who were then, who had Casanova with women who were equal for him ... I also think that these are largely the features of the 18th century, which seems to me very beautiful and exquisite - in painting, in music, in architecture, in philosophy and, in a sense, in a certain sense, also live in art. That is, this century, in my opinion, is very attractive - looking at him from the age of XX, which compared to so poor, so flat. Let's just say: materialistic.

Vivaldi - Concerto Per Due Celli in Sol Minore - 1. Allegro

Corti

I ask Alexander Stroyev a traditional question. What does the figure of Casanova mean for us, people of the twentieth century. What does he teach us?

Straev

Well, actually a lot. First of all, the fact that he is a man of the world. Here is the concept that for so many years was abusive in the Soviet Union, namely, "Bezrodny Cosmopolitan", this is how Casanova declared himself. He said, I am a free man, I am a citizen of the world, i.e. Cosmopolitan, literally "citizen of the world." Of course, in the XVIII century this word also had the Masonic meaning. So, as a rule, members of the Masonic Order were presented. But this is a person who feels at home everywhere who enters the brotherhood of people, the brotherhood of the people of the republic of literature, the brotherhood of the theater people, and the brotherhood of scientists. Casanova a man who is trying to naturally feel everywhere, who ... Yes, he seduces women, but there is really some kind of feeling of love for the world and the adoption of the world. The feeling of a man who ... Yes, of course, Casanova was expelled from his native Venice. Yes, of course, Casanova feels like an exile. But this does not embitter him at all. His concept is the concept of adopting the world, and he comes to another country to defend the honor of his native Venice here. He says: Venice is not fighting with anyone, I don’t need a passport, I can travel everywhere freely. This idea, like a European association, which occurs not only among Casanova, but also among other adventurers ... Casanova, as a true adventurer, is an intermediary, a person who naturally feels in absolutely all classes, i.e. In the peasant hut and at the court of the empress. After he talks with Voltaire, he will go to Orgy with the girls. He naturally feels in any situation. This, let's say, washing all and all sorts of boundaries - this is a thing for us, in my opinion, completely serious and important. A person who feels natural and good.

Corti

Duks. After the Mass in Casanov, in the garden in front of the castle, we are talking with conference participants. In particular, with the French Casanist Catherine Tuska, a charming woman of about thirty -five. Another pronunciation woman. The co -author of the recently published books about Casanov and cooking is a book that contains seventy -two culinary recipes mentioned by Casanova in his memoirs. Longing represents them as 72 ways to seduce. My colleague Sergei Yuryenen, who translated the Casanists from French and was the co -editor of the cycle - asks her the question, the same that Straev had just answered. Catherine Toska brings us closer to the completion of the program and our Casanov cycle: European fate ..

Toesca

His wonderful courage is fantastic! That he constantly jumps away from the situation, that he is a free electron in a society relatively ordered in some aspects and is quite free in others. And the lesson that, in my opinion, he teaches us, is how he knows how to jump from the situation to the situation: his courage, physical and spiritual. While we are mired in comfort, in pessimism, total grotesque and ridiculous, about everything and everything ... And the great lesson teaches me Casanova when he arrives at the inn, being on the verge of ruin, having two dubons in his pocket, or I don’t know what they are called, the maid of Mila, and he will inevitably begin life! And this is that life, that generosity, that courage, the view of the world that is brutally lacking in this century - with our mentality of people on social benefits!

Vivaldi - Christy Eleyson

Corti

There is a Mass in the church of the DUKS castle. Marco Lefland, the Casanist and Protestan theologian, communes. Vietnamese and gypsies from Dux and the districts, silent, concentrated, mixed with elegantly dressed calyanships from around the world, take part in the service. Baptized. When necessary, they knelt down. Many are communed. Jakomo Casanova, a wife, an adventurer and a dulled man, epicuri and a stoic in one person, becomes a symbol of ecumenism, tolerance, reconciliation ... In this space, in the affected church, burned out of the inside in the last year of the war, there are no fences separating classes and ethnic groups. Terezin is somewhere far away. Usty over Labem - too. Ruslan Gelishanov and Mario Corty say goodbye to you.

Vivaldi - nisi dominus - amen