Reason and Desire, Education and Regression: Aspects of Rousseauist Gender Roles in Così fan tutte

[摘要] Mozart's opera Così fan tutte encapsulates various theories ofEnlightenment sexual expression and presents a didactic program aiming atappropriate male comportment in a love situation. Through various musicaldevices, Mozart establishes ideal Rousseauist gender characteristicsand their debased forms, and applies them to the respective sexes as evidence ofweakened or enlightened states. Mozart also provides an educative voice in thecharacter of Don Alfonso, whose musical lines are appropriately instructive. Anexploration of sexual ideals in the Enlightenment as expressed in contemporarytexts and civil documents will provide a framework for Rousseau's theories ofeducation and gender formation as postulated in Emile, ou de l'education andSophie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse. A musical analysis of several numbers in Cosidemonstrates the unfolding weaknesses of the characters. While the menprogress towards an enlightened education in the natures of the sexes, thewomen undergo a regression of character.

[发布机构] Rice University

[效力级别] differences