Mozart, the Eighteenth-Century Feminist: Exploring the arias of Donna Elvira and Dorabella as arguments for women’s education
Corinne Rydman MHL 672: Mozart, Opera, and the Age of Enlightenment May 6, 2016 
1 Two women walk into the mind of a composer: one, a lady struggling with her paradoxical thoughts and the other, a young girl with no thoughts of her own. Both have a penchant for the dramatic and will be publicly ridiculed thanks to their imprudent behavior. Though both add comedic elements to their respective operas, Mozart uses the characters of Donna Elvira and Dorabella as two cautionary extremes of unreasonable women, using his music to propel his belief in Enlightenment and the benefits of educating women. Immanuel Kant, an important German philosopher for his works on rationalism and empiricism in the late eighteenth century,1 describes the process and proper environment of Enlightenment in his 1784 essay, “What is Enlightenment?” “Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred [immaturity],” writes Kant.2 With the guidance and protection of a thoughtful but firm leader, Kant claims the goal of society is to mature through the deliberate and careful use of reason by all, defeating the “laziness and cowardice,” of delegating life’s decisions to an outside authority. A proponent of human beings appreciating their own sense of reason and thinking independently, Kant proclaims, "Have courage to use your own reason!”3
1. Michael Rohlf, "Immanuel Kant,” ed. Edward N. Zalta, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, January 25, 2016. http://plato.stanford.edu/. 2. Immanuel Kant “Immanuel Kant: What is Enlightenment?, 1784,” ed. Paul Halsall, Internet Modern History Sourcebook, September 22, 1997, http://legacy.fordham.edu/. 3. Ibid.
2 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dove head-first into these new ideals. In December of 1784, Mozart became an Apprentice of Freemasonry,4 a social order focused on perpetuating brotherhood and pursuing wisdom and truth. Not afraid of burning professional bridges, Mozart’s letter to his father about his falling out of favor with Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo is a clear indicator of Mozart’s belief in the fallibility of absolute authority. … when I entered the room, his first words were:Archbishop: ‘Well, young fellow, when are you going off?’ I: ‘I intended to go tonight, but all the seats were already engaged.’ Then he rushed full steam ahead, without pausing for breath - I was the {most dissolute fellow he knew - no one} served him so badly as I did - I had better leave to-day or else he would write home and have my {salary} stopped. I couldn’t get a word in edgeways, for he blazed away like a fire. … At last my blood began to boil, I could no longer contain myself, and I said, ‘So Your Grace is not satisfied with me?’ “What, you dare to threaten me - you {scoundrel}? There is the {door}! Look out, for I will have nothing more to do with such {a miserable wretch}.’ At last I said: ‘Nor I with you!’5 Mozart also shared Kant’s high hopes for the age of an enlightened despot, for why else would he live so long in Vienna, a city that could not appreciate him until his death.
4. Rohlf, "Immanuel Kant.” 5. Wolfgang A. Mozart, letter to Leopold Mozart, May 9, 1781, trans. Emily Anderson and ed. Eric Blom, Mozart’s Letters: An Illustrated Selection. New York: Bulfinch, 1990. 144-5. Dr. Blom explains that words written in brackets are transcribed from a cipher used by the Mozart family in their letters. [formatted for ease of reading and emphasis added]
3 In another of his many letters to his father, Mozart wrote in 1782, “The Viennese gentry, and in particular the {Emperor}, must not imagine that I am on this earth solely for the sake of Vienna. There is no monarch in the world whom I should be more glad to serve than the Emperor, but I refuse to beg for any post.”6 And yet, the proud composer waited in Vienna another five years until Emperor Joseph II gave Mozart the late Gluck’s position of chamber composer with a fraction of the late master’s salary.7 While not begging, Mozart’s behavior towards Vienna and the Emperor is a striking contrast with his vocal dissent to the Archbishop of Salzburg. Faith in the Holy Roman Empire as the breeding ground for the age of enlightenment seems a plausible reason for Mozart’s loyalty. Musicologists have long argued the composer found inspiration in his philosophies, hence all the many explorations of Die Zauberflöte and its Masonry. Knowing Mozart surrounded himself with gifted women, it’s a safe assumption the philosophical Mozart would take a stance on women’s roles in Enlightenment and teach as an elder Brother through his preferred form of storytelling, opera. The philosopher John Locke and his 1689 Essay Concerning Human Understanding revolutionized the educational landscape in Europe for both sexes, women in particular. Quoting Barbara Taylor, Michèle Cohen writes that Locke's ideas,
6. Wolfgang A. Mozart, letter to Leopold Mozart, August 17, 1782, trans. Emily Anderson and ed. Eric Blom, Mozart’s Letters: An Illustrated Selection. New York: Bulfinch, 1990. 177. See note 6. [emphasis added] 7. Maynard Solomon, Mozart: A Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Kindle ed. loc 8382-8400.
4 "replac[e] the idea of 'an innate, immutable human nature by one open to change and improvement’."8 This implies that the weaknesses of humans were no longer acts of nature but products of poor education.9 If the mind is capable of change, then both sexes can improve themselves with enough careful reasoning— a quite controversial standpoint in a society that gave no educational entitlements to women.10 Proponents like the eighteenth century feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote that education prepared women to make proper, moral decisions11 despite her natural disposition towards intense emotion and hysteria.12 Opera buffa celebrated this enlightened model of female with a common plot line: the sentimental woman.13 Ruled by her strong moral code, a woman of great virtue and beauty overrides her inappropriate feelings for a man above her social standing and is ultimately rewarded with the man of her affection thanks to some sudden knowledge of her worthiness. She is characterized with an entrance aria often sung as a soliloquy. Hunter describes her as a passive center to the action of the
8. Michèle Cohen, "'To think, to compare, to combine to methodise': Girls' Education in Enlightenment Britain," Women, Gender, and Enlightenment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 234. 9. Ibid. 226. 10. Ibid. 234. 11. Vivian Jones, “Mary Wollstonecraft and Sex Education,” Women, Gender, and Enlightenment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 142. 12. Jenny Mander, “The Female Figure in French Enlightenment Anthropology,” Women, Gender, and Enlightenment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 99. 13. Mary Hunter, The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart’s Vienna: A Poetics of Entertainment. Princeton: Princeton, 1999. 85.
5 plot, the inadvertent focus of all who take part in the story.14 She is the closest approximation to a hero an Enlightened woman can be: patient, docile, forgiving, reasonable. While the opera buffa repertoire has many examples of the sentimental heroine, Mozart also perpetuates the reasonable woman by drawing musical attention to his unreasonable characters: Dorabella and Donna Elvira. Dorabella resides in Mozart’s final opera buffa, Così fan tutte, and represents Kant’s first blockade to enlightened thinking, laziness, as demonstrated by her two arias, “Smanie implacabili,” and “È amore un ladroncello.” Her first aria, “Smanie implacibili,” is a poor attempt at an opera seria aria, a psychological plant by Don Alfonso and his “Vorrei dir”. According to Kristi Brown-Montesano, “Smanie implacabili,” bears similar lyrical idioms to Idomeneo, specifically to Elettra’s “D’oreste, d’Aide ho in seno i tormenti, with its lyrical wailings, calls for death, and summoning forth the Eumenides.15 Dorabella begins her attempt at a great aria of anguish with accompanied recitative, a device reserved for noble characters; however, her words are far from noble and rather a vapid temper tantrum. “Close those windows! I hate the light! … Who will console me? … Leave me alone!”16 She then proceeds to sing in E♭major, a noble key,17 but with only one measure of introductory material. Her anguish is so shallow the
14. Ibid. 15. Kristi Brown-Montesano, Understanding the Women of Mozart’s Operas. Berkeley: University of California, 2007. 224. 16. Nico Castel, The Libretti of Mozart’s Completed Operas: Volume 1. Webster, NY: Leyerle, 1997. 148. 17. William Mann, The Operas of Mozart. New York: Oxford, 1977. 22.
6 Example 1 Così fan tutte, “Smanie implacabili” mm. 16-20
orchestra makes no comment on it. She sings of never-ceasing torment until her death with broken vocal phrases and simple arpeggiated chords. The clarinets and bassoons guffaw while the violins snicker at her in m. 15 and again in m. 19, adding emphasis to the weaker beat of the bar with dynamic changes between forte and piano as she sings “Esempio misero d’amor funesto,” (Ex. 1). Here, Mozart has cleverly set Dorabella’s text to alert the audience of the joke. “Esempio misero,” is significantly separated from “d’amor funesto,” highlighting the first words of the phrase which translate to “miserable example.” She finishes the text Da Ponte provides her soon after, but this being a “miserable example” of a seria aria, Dorabella must return to the beginning and elaborate musically on her feelings. It’s clear she has exhausted her knowledge of opera seria. As she begins again, she modulates briefly to F minor at m. 42 and quickly returns to E♭major by m. 46, insisting on arpeggiated chords and the same rhythms at
7 the aria’s start. By m. 75, Dorabella has run out of text a second time. Completely void of musical ideas, she repeats “darò all’Eumenidi, se viva resto, col suono orribile de’ miei sospir,” holding the tonic while the lower strings encourage her to wrap it up with a rising chromatic line. She misses the hint, repeats the gesture, and then comes to a cadence after repeating text a third time. “Esempio misero,” indeed. The aria “È amore un ladroncello,” seems written for a completely different character. Gone are the raging torments Dorabella sung of ineloquently in Act I. She has abandoned the seria persona for the sweet serva/contadina aria modeled by her servant, Despina. The accompanied recitative is replaced with a sweet skipping Harmonie in 6/8 introducing the main theme of the aria in energetic B♭major18 and accompanying Dorabella through the A section of her rondo. The key and orchestration suit her as an upper-middle class woman, but the meter, simple texture, arpeggiated melody, and sexual innuendo of the song betray the servant’s influence. Dorabella is unable to maintain this disguise. Her drama loving nature shows through in m. 48 with terraced dynamics and agitated strings. Measures 52 and 53 feature a broken dotted rhythm in unison. The dotted rhythms and terraced dynamics join forces at m. 58 until the return of the A section at m. 61. Her vast swing from seria in Act 1 to serva in Act 2 is motivated by Dorabella’s desire to be a model woman, and though she is a passive object (regarding her seduction only), her lack of reason leaves her vulnerable to manipulation. Dorabella doesn’t know it, but she’s been played for the intellectually lazy fool that she is. 18. Mann, The Operas of Mozart. 24.
8 Donna Elvira is a fool of a different sort. She knows what she must do but cannot bring herself to do it, representing Kant’s second blockade to enlightened thinking, cowardice. In many ways, Donna Elvira is set-up as a sentimental heroine. She enters the opera Don Giovanni with “Ah chi mi dice mai,” an entrance aria sung to herself about her lover, except its ragged and violent rather than cantabile. She enters a proud flash as evident by her marching introduction of twelve bars in E♭major. Her phrases are short like her temper. The tessitura rises as she recalls her lover’s crimes against her, and she rips the melody into disjunct parts as she imagines carving out his heart.19 Add on the fact that she is seeking out the man who has wronged her instead of quietly pining at home, it is clear that Donna Elvira is no passive, docile object. Her unchecked passion compels her to act in dramatic fashion. Mozart informs the audience this is no way for a lady to behave. The first violins in m. 5 and m. 16 emphasize the wrong beats, two and four instead of one and three. Elvira pauses the motion of the aria a full four beats for unnecessary dramatic effect in m. 34 before repeating her graphic slaughter of choice. In fact she sings this text, “gli vo’ cavare il cor,” a total of twelve times during the aria. Most telling of all, Don Giovanni and Leporello sing asides during her aria — Giovanni to let the audience know that he plans to seduce her and Leporello to make light of all the other 1,800 women Giovanni has taken advantage of in Elvira’s emotional state. Considering Da Ponte and Mozart claim Don Giovanni has conquered 2,065 women total, 1,800 constitutes over 87 percent of Don Giovanni’s conquests. Just as he
19. Castel, The Libretti of Mozart’s Completed Operas: Volume 1. 273.
9 Example 2 Don Giovanni, “Ah fuggi il traditor,” mm. 1-6
will eventually do with Dorabella, Mozart points out that unreasonable women are often the victims of manipulation. To seal the point home, Giovanni commandeers Donna Elvira’s postlude. She is again manipulated, her violent urges completely deflated by misguided thoughts of a possible happy ending with the Don. After Leporello informs her of the other 2,064, Donna Elvira resolves to take revenge. She does this by interrupting Don Giovanni’s never-innocent conversations with other women. The first interruption prompts the aria, “Ah fuggi il traditor,” a miniature Handelian seria aria20 full of leaps and dotted rhythms in the orchestra and vocal line (Ex 2). She sings in D major, the key of heroism,21 and all the wind
20. Liane Curtis, “On Teaching and Learning: The Sexual Politics of Teaching Mozart’s Don Giovanni,” NWSA Journal 12, no.1: 119. 21. Mann, The Operas of Mozart. 21.
10 instruments remain silent in order to intensify the baroque affect. Elvira is quite pleased with herself as protector of womankind, but the outdated style, and super condensed form reduce her from a champion to a nuisance. This music suits her impractical and inefficient plan. The woman who called for incredibly bloody vengeance by her own hand now appoints herself Giovanni’s chaperone. Despite her rage, she chooses to remain in Don Giovanni’s world even if only to be an annoying and pathetic martyr. Though not written for the original premiere in Prague, Donna Elvira’s Act II aria,“Mi tradì quell’alma ingrata,” still functions as a cautionary tale. Unlike the other four arias mentioned, “Mi tradì,” lacks the irony and mocking tone. If she were allowed to be a sentimental heroine, this would be her entrance aria. It begins with Elvira’s only accompanied recitative. Alone on stage, she recognizes her conflicting feelings: Example 3 Don Giovanni, “Mi tradì quell’alma ingrata,” mm. 37-42
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vengeance for her suffering and pity for her lover’s predicament.22 She foresees Don Giovanni’s hellish demise full of Sturm und Drang but then shifts into Empfindsamkeit at m. 24 as she confronts her inner conflict. She knows she should not love the murderous libertine, and yet she mourns. To heighten Elvira’s contrasting emotions, Mozart writes her a rondo; the A section sings of her abandonment and unhappiness and the B and C section explore her love and hate respectively. The aria proper begins as she sorts through her thoughts. Mozart allows her the dignity of E♭major and a virtuosic line with fugal treatment of the “mi tradì” figure in the orchestra, a rising arpeggiated triad followed by falling scalar motion (Ex. 3). This figure is featured with variation in each section of the rondo, reminding Elvira of the obvious — Giovanni does not love her. Despite the glaring fact of “mi tradì,” she allows herself hope. She sings her last utterance, “per lui pietà,” seven times during the coda and abandons the “mi tradì” figure after m. 148 even as the orchestra tries to remind her of Giovanni’s betrayal throughout the postlude. She has no reason to hope yet she remains constant. Hunter points out that women in opera buffa are defined in the libretto by their relationships to other characters.23 In Don Giovanni, Donna Elvira is defined as “dama di Burgos, abbandonata da Don Giovanni” (Ex. 4). Don Giovanni is her only defining relationship. Without him, she has no connection to anyone else in the plot, no purpose of being. Leaving Don Giovanni means abandoning her self-worth. Elvira pursues Giovanni not
22. Castel, The Libretti of Mozart’s Completed Operas: Volume 1. 354-5.
12 out of deep irrational love but from fear of social exile, even after an orchestral intervention. It isn’t until Giovanni is dragged down to hell that Elvira chooses what was always an option— a convent. Example 4 Don Giovanni, list of characters
It’s easy to see Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte as misogynistic drivel with pretty music, especially with all the baggage of nineteenth century Romantic performance practice and study. With so much of the space-time continuum lying between now and the operas’ premieres, it’s easy to forget that Mozart was a radical and clever propagandist. The title Così fan tutte is often translated into English as Women are Like That, but another possibility is So Do They All, “all” referencing a feminine population. In Mozart’s world, where education was not guaranteed to a woman, no matter her social status, So Do They All becomes a warning to a conservative public. So Do They All if women are shut out of educated thought. Just as current research demonstrates, ladies make better choices if they are allowed the courage to use their own reason.
23. Hunter, The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart’s Vienna. 58.
13 Annotated Bibliography Brown-Montesano, Kristi. Understanding the Women of Mozart’s Operas. Berkeley: University of California, 2007. Brown-Montesano focuses on the women in Mozart's four famous operas (the three Da Ponte plus The Magic Flute) and what makes them unique. Characters are analyzed through the music, libretto, literary sources and historical context. The author also tackles the social issues presented by these characters and the performance practice surrounding them. Castel, Nico. The Libretti of Mozart’s Completed Operas: Volume 1. Webster, NY: Leyerle, 1997. This volume contains the complete libretti of Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte with diction written in the International Phonetic Alphabet and an English translation. Castel is considered the foremost authority in translation and diction of opera repertoire. Clements, Jessica, Elizabeth Angeli, Karen Schiller, S. C. Gooch, Laurie Pinkert, and Allen Brizee. “Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition.” The Purdue OWL. February 7, 2014. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/. This section contains information on The Chicago Manual of Style method of document formatting and citation. These resources follow the sixteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, which was issued in September 2010. The site includes templates and examples of citation for several types of source material. Cohen, Michele. "'To think, to compare, to combine to methodise': Girls' Education in Enlightenment Britain." Women, Gender, and Enlightenment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. This article discusses the controversy over the best practices of the education of girls in the eighteenth century Britain. Issues such as private versus public education, methodology, and subject matter were discussed by the great male and female minds. Curtis, Liane. “On Teaching and Learning: The Sexual Politics of Teaching Mozart’s Don Giovanni.” NWSA Journal 12, no.1 (Spring 2000): 119. Curtis points identifies the difficulty in textbook teaching of Don Giovanni within modern cultural context. Starting with the writings in the 19th century, textbooks tend to romanticize the sexual violence and ignore the plight of the three assaulted women.
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Ferguson, Faye, and Wolfgang Rehm ed. Neue Mozart Ausgabe II/5/18/1-2: Cosi fan tutte. London: Bärenreiter Kassel, 1991. http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/ nmapub_srch.php?l=2. The Neue Mozart Ausgabe is the latest scholarly edition of Wolfgang Mozart’s complete catalogue. These volumes contain the Da Ponte opera Cosi fan tutte in its entirety along with copies of autographs and alternative music. Hunter, Mary. The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna: A Poetics of Entertainment. Princeton: Princeton, 1999. Hunter explores the common practices of opera buffa in eighteenth century Vienna. She identifies aria types, plots, dramatic devices as well as the differing purposes of the art form. Jones, Vivian. “Mary Wollstonecraft and Sex Education.” Women, Gender, and Enlightenment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Jones looks at the writing of early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft to discern her thoughts towards the education of women, particularly in best practices for married life. Kant, Immanuel, and Paul Halsall ed. “Immanuel Kant: What is Enlightenment?, 1784.” Internet Modern History Sourcebook. September 22, 1997. http:// legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kant-whatis.asp An English translation of philosopher Immanuel Kant’s essay hosted by Fordham University. The essay is posted in its entirety. There is no commentary or information on the translator. Mander, Jenny. “The Female Figure in French Enlightenment Anthropology.” Women, Gender, and Enlightenment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. With a rekindled culture interest in human nature, the early beginnings of anthropology encouraged discussion about the human body and the differences between the sexes. Mann, William. The Operas of Mozart. New York: Oxford, 1977. Mann uses musical analysis and the composer's biographical information to explain all of Mozart's operas. Events leading up the premiere as well as information on the original performers begins each chapter. This book includes Mann's chapter on the purpose of tonal keys on mozart's operas.
15 Mozart, Wolfgang A., Emily Anderson trans., and Eric Blom ed. Mozart’s Letters: An Illustrated Selection. New York: Bulfinch, 1990. This selection of letters by Dr. Eric Blom is organized in chronological order with an index to named persons and specific works. Throughout the book are paintings, engravings, and other graphics pertinent to the content of the letters. Plath, Wolfgang, and Wolfgang Rehm ed. Neue Mozart Ausgabe II/5/17: Don Giovanni. London: Bärenreiter Kassel,1968. http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/ nmapub_srch.php?l=2. The Neue Mozart Ausgabe is the latest scholarly edition of Wolfgang Mozart’s complete catalogue. This volume contains the Da Ponte opera Don Giovanni in its entirety at the Prague premiere along with the changes made for the Vienna premiere and copies of autographs. Rohlf, Michael, and Edward N. Zalta ed. "Immanuel Kant.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. January 25, 2016. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/ entries/kant/. This website contains biographical information as well as summaries of important philosophical arguments of German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Solomon, Maynard. Mozart: A Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Kindle ed. A biography collecting and building upon the work of previous Mozart scholars. Solomon uses letters, musical analysis, descriptions from Mozart's contemporaries, and many other sources to tell Mozart's life chronologically.