Music, Philosophy and Sexual Politics in Mozart's Music for Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte
Audio Version (to download right-click and 'Save link as...')
- Speaker(s):
- Charles Ford (IMR), Chair: Eric Clarke (Oxford)
- Event date:
- Thursday 11 February 2010
School of Advanced Study, University of London
- Description
-
The thought of the European, and most especially, the Viennese Enlightenment, is implicit within the chords, melodies, rhythms and textures of Mozart’s music for his music for his operas with Da Ponte – Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. I will illustrate with recorded examples how the Enlightenment’s understanding of sexuality – identities, relationships and morality ‘resounds’ in this music. Women in these operas, apart from the soubrettes, are always distressed. They never sing out to the audience. Mozart’s music revels in this distress, as I will show in one extraordinary recitativo accompagnato in Così fan tutte.