Maybe you’re like me, and you need a spoiler warning for an opera that premiered in 1787, the same year the U.S. Constitution was written.

If so, you can stop reading now and return to the Editor’s Note next week.

I had never seen Don Giovanni — one of Mozart’s masterworks — before attending a performance at Santa Fe Opera last week, and I was pleasantly surprised at the way the opera subverted many ancient tropes of the genre.

Spoiler for an ancient opera

Spencer Fordin

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