Three modes of perception in Mozart : the philosophical, pastoral, and comic in Così fan tutte / Edmund J. Goehring.
| Author/creator |
Goehring, Edmund Joseph |
| Format | Book and Print |
| Publication Info | Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004. |
| Description | xvii, 301 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Subject(s) |
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| Series | Cambridge studies in opera Cambridge studies in opera. ^A396000 |
| Contents | An overture to Cosi fan tutte: the poetics of the opera over two centuries. A history of word/music relations to Cosi fan tutte ; Nineteenth-century roots to modern thought ; Cosi fan tutte and postmodern poetics ; The reception of Cosi fan tutte in the eighteenth century ; Toward a new poetics of Cosi fan tutte. The recitative ; The overture and "Tutti accusan le donne" -- The philosophical mode. The philosopher and othic comic eccentrics. Don Alfonso as old man and poet ; Don Alfonso as cynic ; The philosopher as comic character ; The philosopher as an operatic type ; Paisiello's Il Socrate immaginario ; Don Alfonso as philosopher. Materialism and Mesmerism in Cosi fan tutte ; Don Alfonso and popular wisdom ; The moral tale in Cosi fan tutte ; Don Alfonso's musical identity ; Don Alfonso's ottava -- The pastoral mode. Despina's textual and musical authority. "In uomini, in soldati" ; "Una donna a quindici anni" ; The theory and practice of the pastoral mode. Eros and episode in the pastoral ; The sentimentalization of the pastoral in the eighteenth century ; Despina and the pastoral mode. Despina's Epicureanism ; The uses of pity in the pastoral and in Cosi fan tutte ; Dorabella's pastoral transformation ; The limits of the pastoral in Cosi fan tutte. Beauty and transcendence in "Soave sia il vento" ; "Soave sia il vento" revisited: of beauty and contingency -- The comic mode. Introduction: Don Alfonso as comedian ; Comedy in the sentimental mode. Una cosa rara and sentimental heroism ; The origins and language of sentimental comedy ; Cosi fan tutte as anti-sentimental opera. Heroic and marital images of love in the soldiers ; Fiordiligi as sentimental heroine ; The seduction duets ; Ferrando's second-act scena ; The comic vision of Cosi fan tutte. |
| Abstract | This is the first full-length, scholarly study of what is widely regarded as Mozart's most enigmatic opera and Lorenzo Da Ponte's most erudite text. Against the long-standing judgment that the opera uses a misguided confidence in reason to traduce feeling, the author's study shows how Cosi affirms comedy's regenerative powers and its capacity to grant access to modes of sympathy and understanding that are otherwise inaccessible. In making this argument, this book surveys a rich literary, operatic, and intellectual territory. This monograph offers a new perspective on the relationships between text and tone in opera, on the tension between comedy and philosophy and its representation in stage works, and on the pastoral mode, which the opera uses in especially subtle ways. Throughout, the author's argument is sustained by close readings of primary sources, many of them little known, and is richly illustrated with musical examples. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-291) and index. |
| LCCN | 2003069693 |
| ISBN | 0521838819 |
Available Items
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions | |
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.M9 G65 2004 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |