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Women & Freemasonry in Mozart Era |
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Misogyny and Chauvinism appear as drama elements in Così fan tutte and The Magic
Flute. In this paper the author will study and discuss both elements in The Magic
Flute. The position of Pamina in the opera. On musicologist Susan McClary and her
book Feminine Endings. The Magic Flute as apologetic work against the feared suppression
of the Freemasonry Lodges, due to the French Revolution [anyhow, it really occured
in 1795 by royal decree]. Freemasons did not admit women in their Order, but in
18th century allowed separate female lodges of adoption. Still today it is not possible
to determine, if such female lodges actually existed in Mozart Vienna. On historian
Margaret Jacob and her book Living the Enlightenment. Against the radical feminist
positions of McClary and Jacob, the eminent musicologist H. C. Robbins-Landon had
already offered a suitable answer: the opera represents Mozart's wish to reform
the Order by asking that women be included in its membership and this is the meaning
of the final part of the Opera, Pamina facing the final trials with Tamino, i.e.
gender equality through Enlightenment (Julian Rushton in New Grove Opera). On Mozart
7 May 1783 Letter: in opera Mozart wants more serious women characters, upon whom
to build some interesting drama, and this also in a comic opera (according to Mozart,
the
3 main female characters should be 1 seria, 1 mezzo-carattere, 1 buffa). So
Così fan tutte rather shows misanthropy than misogyny. On Jacques Chailley's masonic
exegesis of The Magic Flute and his book The Magic Flute, A Masonic Opera. Schikaneder
and Mozart were both masons, but Schikaneder was dismissed from the Order in 1788
and likely never joined any Vienna lodge. Other masons may have added parts to the
libretto, like Ignaz von Born, himself probably a model for Sarastro, and Karl Ludwig
Gieseke. So the revolutionary position of equality of Pamina in the opera should
be originated directly from Mozart. On Sethos by Jean Terrason (1731), a model for
the Egyptian masonic trials. Analysis of the characters of Tamino and Pamina through
the Escapes moments and the Initiation trials (Fire, Water, Air and Earth). The
real dramatic intensity of the character of Pamina. Thanks to a subtle analysis
of the character of Sarastro, we can discover how many revolutionary elements Mozart
introduced into his opera: the initiation of Pamina into the Order, initiation well accepted by the 2 Men in Armour, seems to contradict the strict position of Sarastro
about
the role of women in the society. In conclusion, Mozart regarded the Masons'
anti-feminine stance as unfair and irrational: the solution is the redemptive power
of love, a love that redeems men and women alike. Mozart so perceived their union
as more equal than most of his Brethren thought in 18th century and used the character
of Pamina to demonstrate this, even by assigning a less heroic profile to Tamino
himself in a sort of provocative way. __________________ |
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Read the complete article by U. Golomb (Academia.edu): Feminism, Chauvinism and Masonic Allegory: The Role of Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute For those new to Academia.edu: To download the complete article in .pdf format, remember to log in into Academia.edu first. In Academia.edu it is always better to download the articles, because the online reader is a Low-Definition Reader. So to read the articles in good HD format, always download the .pdf files and read them offline. |
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