Giacomo Casanova
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Giacomo Casanova (April 2, 1725 in Venice – June 4, 1798, in Dux, Bohemia, now Duchcov, Czech Republic) was a famous Venetian adventurer, writer, and womanizer. He used charm, guile, threats, intimidation, and aggression, when necessary, to conquer women, sometimes leaving behind children or debt. In his autobiography Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life), regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century, he mentions 122 women with whom he had sex.
In spite of him being a historical character and Don Juan being a legend, Casanova is often associated with him.
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I Modi
Giacomo Casanova in his memoirs mentions spending New Year's Eve 1753 with a nun doing Aretino's 'straight tree' position from I Modi, which he says featured the man standing and holding the woman upside-down for mutual oral sex.
In popular culture
Written works
- Casanovas Heimfahrt (Casanova's Homecoming) (1918) by Arthur Schnitzler
- The Venetian Glass Nephew (1925) by Elinor Wylie, in which Casanova appears as a major character under the transparent pseudonym "Chevalier de Chastelneuf"
- Casanova in Bolzano, a 1940 novel by Sándor Márai
- Le Bonheur ou le Pouvoir (1980) by Pierre Kast
- Casanova (1998) by Andrew Miller
- Casanova, Dernier Amour published in 2000 by the French author Pascal Lainé
- Casanova in Bohemia, a sympathetic and gently ribald novel about Casanova's last years at Dux, Bohemia; by Andrei Codrescu (2002; Free Press, Simon & Schuster)
- Een Schitterend Gebrek (English title In Lucia's Eyes), a 2003 Dutch novel by Arthur Japin, in which Casanova's youthful amour Lucia is viewed as the love of his life
Performance works
- Casanova, a 1918 Hungarian film featuring Béla Lugosi
- Casanova, an operetta by Johann Strauss Jr.
- Camino Real, a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams, in which an aging Casanova appears in a dream sequence
- Casanova, a 1971 BBC Television serial, written by Dennis Potter and starring Frank Finlay
- Fellini's Casanova, a 1976 feature film by Federico Fellini, starring Donald Sutherland
- La Nuit de Varennes, a 1982 film featuring Marcello Mastroianni
- Casanova, a 1987 TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain and Marina Baker
- Casanova, a 1989 play by Constance Congdon, the premiere of which featured Ethan Hawke as young Casanova
- Casanova, a 2005 BBC Television serial featuring David Tennant as young Casanova and Peter O'Toole as the older Casanova
- Casanova, a 2005 feature film featuring Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller and Charlie Cox
- Casanova, a 2007 play by Carol Ann Duffy and Told by an Idiot theatre company, produced at the Lyric Hammersmith in London and starring Hayley Carmichael as a female Casanova
- Casanova, a 2008 musical by Philip Godfrey, showing between 16 May and 8 June at the Greenwich Playhouse in London, portraying the life of Casanova with a small cast
Music
- Casanova, a piece for cello and winds by Johan de Meij
- Casanova in Hell, a song by the UK group Pet Shop Boys, from their 2006 album Fundamental
