Casanova in Hell/Pet Shop Boys

On the web site Absolutely Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant describes the song Casanova In Hell, from the Pet Shop Boys' 2006 album Fundamental: "I’d had the idea of writing a song called ‘Casanova in Hell’ from reading a book about him. . . . It’s a short novel, Casanova's Homecoming by Arthur Schnitzler, who was the Viennese writer at the tum of the twentieth century and it sort of draws upon the idea that Casanova is getting older. . . . A woman laughs at him because she thinks he’s too old to have sex with her, and he confronts that realisation and gets his revenge by writing his memoirs." Casanova has the last laugh, as the lyrics note: Back in the library/His revenge is his story/What he will write/Will recall the bite/Of his wit/And legendary appetite. (Rufus Wainwright was the first to sing the song at a live performance, at a concert for the BBC in 2006.)