Le 30 juin 2017
de 16h30 à 17h00
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
amphithéâtre 4
Séance précomposée - Analyzing Mozart's Operas: External Stakes, Intrinsic Challenges
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Nathan Martin
A strange thing happens on p. 118 of Said’s Orientalism (1979). One hundred some odd pages into that book’s pointed indictment of Western attitudes towards Islam, Mozart appears briefly on the docket—only to be granted instant clemency with the claim that “the Abduction from the Seraglio locate[s] a particularly magnanimous form of humanity in the east.” Yet the Pasha, as that opera’s other characters never tire of pointing out, is an expatriate European whose final act of mercy is explicitly framed in terms of parochially Christian charity. The opera’s only Muslim character, Osmin, serves as a dramatic foil for the Pasha: for Osmin’s defining attribute is his rage, which the opera insists makes him congenitally incapable of mercy. My paper examines how Mozart’s music works in conjunction with Stephanie’s libretto to characterize Osmin, in his his opening Lied (“Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden”); in his aria “Ha! Wie will ich triumphieren” (no. 19); in the closing Act-I trio (“Marsch, Marsch, Marsch,” no. 7); the duets with Blonde (“Ich gehe, doch rathe ich dir,” no. 9) and Pedrillo (“Vivat Bachus, Bachus lebe,” no. 14), and the closing vaudeville (“Nie werd’ ich deine Huld verkennen,” no. 21)—but above all in his great Act-I rage aria “Solche hergelauf’ne Laffen” (no. 4).
