Mozart's opera Così fan tutte encapsulates various theories of
Enlightenment sexual expression and presents a didactic program aiming at
appropriate male comportment in a love situation. Through various musical
devices, Mozart establishes ideal Rousseauist gender characteristics
and their debased forms, and applies them to the respective sexes as evidence of
weakened or enlightened states. Mozart also provides an educative voice in the
character of Don Alfonso, whose musical lines are appropriately instructive. An
exploration of sexual ideals in the Enlightenment as expressed in contemporary
texts and civil documents will provide a framework for Rousseau's theories of
education and gender formation as postulated in Emile, ou de l'education and
Sophie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse. A musical analysis of several numbers in Cosi
demonstrates the unfolding weaknesses of the characters. While the men
progress towards an enlightened education in the natures of the sexes, the
women undergo a regression of character.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/20470 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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