Patrick Bade
Mozart and the Enlightenment, Part 2

Patrick Bade - Mozart and the Enlightenment, Part 2

- Welcome Patrick, and welcome everybody. And Patrick, whenever you’re ready, I’ll hand over to you.

• Thank you, Judy. Well, as I said last time, I believe that Mozart was more deeply engaged with the philosophical, social, and political ideas of the Enlightenment than he was with the doctrines of the Catholic church. And, he was an exceptionally open and, tolerant man, for his time. And we saw last week how he was perfectly willing to accept the idea that a Muslim and an Arab could be a man of superior morality. It was his idea to express this at the end of his opera, the Abduction from the Seraglio. From the somewhat limited information that we have, it would also seem that Mozart was very accepting of Jews, at a time when that was not commonly the case. We know that one of his closest friends was a man called Baron Reimund Vetzla. He wrote a letter to his father, in which he describes, he said he describes him as a rich Jew. Although in fact, by this time, Vetzla and his family, all of his family except his mother, interestingly, had converted to Christianity. It seems it was his father’s idea in 1776, and it was a purely practical thing. He wanted a noble title. He wanted to become a Baron, a Baron, and he could only do this if he converted, but his wife, resolutely stuck to her Jewish faith.

So, I think it’s quite interesting, first of all, that despite the fact that he was officially Christian, that Mozart still calls him a Jew. But in in the same letter he goes on to tell his father that he regards Vetzla as a good, and faithful friend. And interestingly, he chose Vetzla to be the godfather of his son. Of course, that would not have been possible, I suppose, if he had stuck to his Jewish faith. And the other intriguing link, of course, is with his great librettist, who had lots of comments and questions about him at the end of last week, Lorenzo Da Ponte. And I think this is generally, they only wrote three, three operas together, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. But their collaboration is generally regarded as being the greatest collaboration in the history of opera between a composer, and a librettist. And so Lorenzo Da Ponte is a very fascinating character. He wrote an extremely colourful autobiography, and there’ve also been a number of biographies of him. He was the son of a poor Jewish tanner. And at the age of 14, he converted to Christianity, and his real name was Conegliano. But he adopted the name of the bishop who baptised him, who was called Da Ponte. And, he himself became a priest. But I mentioned last time how, of course, one of the problems I think in the 18th century for many people was the fact that so many people entered the church, either Protestant or Catholic, for purely career reasons. It was a way of making a living. That was certainly the case, I think with Lorenzo Da Ponte. He was a pretty lush character. I mean, he gave up his priesthood and he was, he was expelled for, from Venice.

Partly for his extensive womanising, and lush behaviour, and partly for his revolutionary ideas. And he turns up in Vienna , in the early 1780s. And his moment came in 1783. I talked last time about all these enlightened reforms, of the emperor Joseph II, one of which was to promote, opera in the vernacular German, that didn’t go down well with the Viennese opera-going public. And it was one of many reforms of Joseph’s II that was rescinded. So that opera went back to being presented in the Italian from 1783. And the first collaboration between Mozart and Da Ponte, is with the Marriage of Figaro, based on the play by Beaumarchais, which was extremely new. It had had only received its first public performance in Paris two years earlier. And it was also, an extremely daring choice. The the play itself, was banned in Vienna, but still banned when the opera was performed. And in fact, after a reading at Versailles in 1783, it was banned in France. And then, a public performance was allowed in 1784. And a great theme of this opera, of course, is of class warfare. It’s a kind of war between the, the Count, and his servant, Figaro. Here is Beaumarchais, the 18th century seem to throw out these absolutely amazing characters. Like Casanova, who was instantly a friend of Da Ponte in Venice. And Beaumarchais, multi-talented. He started off, as a watchmaker. He was also an extremely talented musician.

And he was a diplomat, he was a spy. He was a gun runner. So, a sort of, multifaceted personality. This is his desk, which was, this was quite a present from his admirers, ‘cause it was commissioned from the most expensive cabinet maker in France and 18th century, Riesener, who was the cabinet maker of choice of Mary Antoinette. And this very lavish piece of furniture still exists, and it’s in the Rothschild collection at Woodston. So yes, I mentioned the first performance, reading of the play at Verstein in 1783. It shocked Louis the 16th so much, that he had it banned. But there was a great clamouring to see it. And it was finally performed in public, in the presence actually of Maria Antoinette, in the Odeon Theatre. I always think of it when I pass that theatre, a rather severe neoclassical building. And, apparently, the auditorium was so crowded.

Of course, in those days there were no seats, unless you sat in a box, and at the end of the performance, when the audience dispersed, there were a couple of corpses from people who’d actually suffocated, or had heart attacks during the performance. And their bodies had been kept upright by the crush of people. So the opera, this is very, very new. As I said, the play is only a couple of years old, or in the public domain for a couple of years. And the opera was performed at the beautiful that I talked about last time. So sadly demolished to build the hideous, clunky new wing of the Hofburg in Paris, at the turn of the century. So certainly, the overtly political element is toned down in the opera. I think it had to be, for reasons of censorship. And there’s more of a concentration in Mozart and Da Ponte’s opera on the human side, rather than the political side. But the political side is still there. And Figaro, this, in this aria in act one, he expresses his anger at the arrogance of his boss, rather, in similar terms to the sort of crackling anger that Mozart himself expressed, in letters about his boss, the Archbishop of Salzburg.

• Now, Mozart has a universal appeal, I would say not really matched by any other composer. I’m sure that the Marriage of Figaro must have been performed in almost every language under the sun. And I’m going to, I just thought it might amuse you, or might interest you to hear that little aria we’ve just heard sung again, this time in Arabic. The three Mozart Da Ponte operas have, all three of them been recorded complete in Arabic versions.

• Now I’d like to talk a little bit about Mozart’s attitudes to women that, I think it’s Jane Glover who’s written a whole book about Mozart’s depiction of women and his relationship with them. Mozart clearly adored women, he loved women, but what I think is more, lots of men adore women, lots of men love women. Don Giovanni adores women, he loves women. But Mozart liked women. In a way that’s rarer, and more important. I had a discussion about this with my friends at yesterday, and I was trying to define the difference between love and like, it’s not so easy in French. And my companion Martine, she said to me, “No, I think the word you mean in French is appreciate, appreciate.” And I really think that Mozart appreciates women. We know how much he adored and loved, and appreciated his wife Constanze, who you see on the left hand side. And so his depictions of women in his operas are exceptionally rich, and complex. And I’d like to compare them with the way that another composer who adored women, Puccini, his I’d say, I mean, although as I’ve said before, I won’t hear a word said against Puccini, he’s one of my favourite composers and I love him. But, he’s certainly, his depictions of women are much more limited, they’re nearly always victims. They nearly always come to a bad end. That is not the case with Mozart, his women are strong and feisty and very often, as in the Marriage Figaro, of course, they triumph over their men folk. So I’m going to start off, of course, the Marriage of Figaro contains two wonderful female characters, the Countess and her servant Susanna, equally rich, interesting characters. But we start off with the Countess, in actually, a somewhat melancholy mood. She’s feeling slightly disillusioned with her marriage, and she’s aware of her husband’s constant infidelities.

• Lovely aria, sorry to cut it off. And notoriously difficult to sing, despite its apparent simplicity. Now, one of the problems for me always talking about these mature operas of Mozart is, for me, their ultimate glory is in the long and extremely complex assemblers. These seem to me to be more, more or less unique in opera. And they’re especially long, I mean, the Marriage of Figaro, involving many different characters, and many different strands of music and, the formal complexity and perfection that goes together with this marvellous characterization of all these different people all singing at once, or alternately, and all very specifically their characters, and their emotions superbly characterised. So it’s quite difficult to pull out a bite-size section from these, from these ensembles. But I want to play you the last section of great ensemble in the last act. It takes place in the gardens at night, and it’s got a very classical element and everybody is pretending to be someone else. And you know, of course it, it’s a cliche of opera, that all you have to do is put on a little mask, or change your hat, or change your dress, and then nobody can recognise you anymore. And there are lots of opportunities for sudden revelations when people recognise each other.

As I said, this is a kind of a cliche already of opera in the 18th century, and it’s something that Da Ponte and Mozart have a lot of fun with. They’re really mocking this tradition, in a way. But in this scene, Susanna and the Countess have exchanged dresses with one another. So they’re, Susanna’s fiance Figaro, and the Count are unable to recognise their woman folk, 'cause they’ve changed their dresses. And everybody’s chasing everybody around the bushes, and everybody’s up to no good. And then eventually, let me go onto the text here. The Count thinks he’s caught his wife having sex in flagrante with his servant Figaro. And he denounces them, and calls everybody as witnesses. And he angrily, angrily, refuses to pardon them, or have mercy. And then, the Countess steps out from a pavilion in the garden. And she says, “Well, may I ask for pardon?” Of course, the Count is exposed, he’s humiliated. And it is a moment of triumph for the Countess. And it, is for me, one of the most sublime of wonderful moments in all of opera. And it’s done through a series of, changes of harmony. Everybody’s stupefaction, everybody’s surprise, everybody’s amazement at this turn events. And then of course, graciously the Countess, as you can see, she says to her husband, I still love you and I forgive you. And as I said, I think it’s just one of the most beautiful, and sublime moments that you will ever come across in an opera.

• And how sublime when they’re all saying all are happy now. But actually, the music is saying something totally different. Music is still in a minor key, and it’s still very thoughtful and rather melancholic. Now I’d like to continue by considering the impact of Freemasonry on Mozart. The modern Freemason movement was actually created in, London, in 1717. Though it traced its ancestry back to mediaeval guilds of the masons who built the great cathedrals. But the reborn Freemasons movement was really something else in the 18th century. This is the Freemason Hall, in London. You can see the date, 1770, proudly engraved on the outside of the building. And the inside, I’ve never been inside, but I’d love to go inside, it looks like a step for the Magic Flute. So it rapidly became an international movement and it permeated all levels of society. And it promoted the ideas of the Enlightenment, of the brotherhood, of man, and various humanitarian social ideas. And Mozart joined, as an apprentice in the early 1780s. And very soon, moved up to the position of a Master Mason. And he was certainly very active within the Freemason movement. In 1786, same year as Figaro, he persuaded his father, and the composer Joseph Haydn, to become Freemasons. And that the, the day after, that Haydn became a Freemason, he wrote a very famous letter to Leopold Mozart, Mozart’s father. Declaring solemnly, that the young Mozart was the greatest composer that he knew. So the Freemasons, of course, they’ve often been viewed with suspicion, 'cause they’re seen as a power behind the scenes. And it certainly, in the early 18th century, Freemasons were, you can say, on the side of liberty, they were in terms of, you know, today’s thinking, left or right, they would be left wing. I’m told by my friends here in France that they’re regarded as being quite conservative and right wing in France these days.

Of course, they were reviewed with extreme suspicion by the Nazis. And when the Germans arrived in Paris during occupation, one of the first things they did was to organise two enormous parallel exhibitions, exposing the power of the Jews, and exposing the power of the Freemasons. These were these, here you can see the exterior of these two exhibitions in Paris in 1941. Here we have, one of these elaborate ceremonies that were performed, pseudo religious ceremonies to induct people into the Freemasons. And this is a painting that dates from the 1780s, when Mozart was, became a Freemason. And he wrote quite a lot of music for ceremonies of the Freemasons. More than he wrote Christian music at this time in the 1780s. And this is a text that he set to music. And you can see the sentiments, love, love yourselves, love your brethren, extend a brotherly hand of eternal friendship. Break the bonds of delusion, render the veil of prejudice. I mean these is distinctly anti-Catholic sentiments. Put off the garment that close mankind in sex. So it’s anti-religious, in a way. And here is an excerpt of that piece. You see, break the bonds of delusion. Hammer and iron, which till now has spilt the blood of men, shall be made into ploughshares.

• Now after his three great Italian masterpieces with Da Ponte, Mozart returned to the German language for Die Zauberflöte. This was not a court commission, this was a commercial venture. And it was the idea of a man, an actor/manager called Schikaneder, who could sing a little. And Mozart wrote a role for him in the opera, the role of Papageno, the Bird Man. And it’s an opera, which is the great Enlightenment opera, that really expresses the ideas of the Freemasons. In fact, there is a slightly wacky theory. They’re all, of course, we know how the world loves conspiracy theories, and there’ve been lots of conspiracy theories about the early death of Mozart, including of course the one that is the basis of the play Amadeus. So, people, I think people just can’t accept that such a great genius could just be cut off like that in the flower of his youth. And there is one theory that it was actually the Freemasons who had him bumped off. Because he revealed their secret ceremonies in the Magic Flute. But I don’t think anybody takes that very seriously. This is the Theatre an der Wien, in Vienna, with the sculptural group of Schikaneder as Papageno on the facade of this theatre. The Magic Flute was wildly, wildly popular, that made a fortune for Schikaneder. Sadly, of course, Mozart didn’t live long enough to benefit from it very much. But it was the profits from the Magic Flute that enabled Schikaneder to build this theatre.

And it’s an opera which has been widely loved from the start. And of course it’s element, it’s very naive in some ways. It’s got these wonderful fantasy elements that have always appealed to artists. These are designs from early 19th century by Schinkel, another Schinkel design. These are from the celebrated David Hockney production at Glyndebourne in the 1970s. Now it, there’s a certain irony that this opera, which as I said is the great Enlightenment opera. It’s an opera that’s promoting the idea of the brotherhood of man, but not necessarily the brotherhood of man and women. It probably has the most out outrageously non-PC, sexist, and racist lyrics of any opera you can think of. It’s full of absolutely outrageously demeaning things about women. This is the scene where Sarastro is, is telling the heroine, Pamina, that of course she, that is the duty of a woman to find a man who’s going to guide her, morally, 'cause a woman is incapable of being moral by herself. And there are lots and lots of the, the wise men throughout, they’re all saying things like, you know, women talk too much and they don’t think enough. And women just need to do what they’re told by their male partners. And also this, in fact has been quite a while since I’ve seen a Magic Flute where the text, the text of the aria of Monostatos has not been changed. This, you know, it was fine I suppose in the past when most people wouldn’t really be able to catch the words, even if it was sung in your local language. But these days, where of course you’ve got surtitles, the original text of Monostatos has become, I would say impossible. He says, “I’m black and I’m ugly, and she’s white and she’s beautiful, therefore I have to rape her.” Basically is the text of that little aria. But otherwise, you have the three boys and the, the armed men who come out with his rather Protestant-sounding little corrals, moralising, corrals. And actually at this point in his career, Mozart have become very fascinated with Bach. So I think you’ll hear an echo of Bach in this scene for the three boys.

• I think you can imagine that many Catholics must have regarded that, that text as being really quite blasphemous in the 18th century. And here we have, the armed men, the armoured men, preparing hero Tamino, for his trial, for his ordeal.

• Ray Solomon rather Bach-like. Here is the trial for Tamino, and Pamina. And they have to go literally, through fire and water. But before achieving the…triumph of becoming mensch. Mensch, is such a beautiful word in German. There are so many wonderful words actually in German, for which there’s no real equivalent in English. Mensch, that being one of them. Well, of course Jews understand what mensch means, because it’s part of, it’s kind of Jewish slang, isn’t it? But it means a decent human being. And I’m going to finish with a story about somebody who is probably not a very decent human being. That’s Sir Thomas Beecham. 'Cause, I want to finish with the final moments of the opera, when Sarastro declares that, the rays of the sun have finally triumphed over the darkness of light. So it ends with this tremendous optimism. And the very first complete recording of the Magic Flute was made in 1937, for the British firm of HMV, with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. And the original intention, of course, was to record it in London. I think it would’ve been the LPO, would’ve been, yes, the RPO. In the LPO I think it would’ve been the orchestra. And, two of the greatest singers of the 20th century were going to be used, the Ukrainian-based Alexander Kipnis, as Sarastro and the Austrian tenor Richard Tauber as Tamino. But Goebbels, initiated a charm offensive, for trying to win over the English aristocracy to sympathy for Nazi Germany. And they thought that Sir Thomas Beecham would be the key to all of this. So they really laid out the red carpet for him. They welcomed him with his orchestra, that he travelled around Germany, in 1936.

There are a letter saying, I know Thomas Beecham is nothing really, he can’t compare with , but I’m going to make sure he gets rave reviews wherever he goes. In Germany, Beecham already agreed to drop Mendelson from the repertoire of the orchestra in order to please the Nazis. And then the Nazis, when Goebbels offered a contract to Beecham’s mistress, Dora Labbette, that she would sing in the top German houses, again with guaranteed rave reviews. And the ultimate temptation they dangled in front of him, was that he could actually use the Berlin Philharmonic, the world’s greatest orchestra, for his recording of the Magic Flute. Of course, this was really too big a temptation for him. So I’m afraid that both Kipnis and Tauber, who were Jews, were thrown under the bus to satisfy the ambition of Beecham. So I hope I haven’t totally put you off the recording, 'cause it is a wonderful recording, and is worth listening to. But here are the final moments, with the sun, when the night is dissipated and the sun comes out, at the end of the Magic Flute.

• Now, before I open up comments and questions, I would just like to say a few words actually about the Nazi relationship with Mozart and his music. Of course, throughout the Nazi period, their claim to cultural glory for Austria-Germany was music. And there’s no doubt that the Austria-German tradition is the greatest, in as far as Western music is concerned. And they always gloated over the fact that poor old England, was the Germans , the country without music, Germany was the land of music. But Mozart was problematic for the Nazis in a number of ways. First of all, there was of course, his espousal of humanitarian Enlightenment ideas, and his membership of the Freemasons, of whom they disapproved. And then, of course, there was the big problem, of his association with Da Ponte. And it didn’t matter to the Nazis that Da Ponte had converted to Catholicism and was an ordained priest, as far as they were concerned, he was a Jew. So they certainly didn’t want his Italian texts for those three operas. And it was, throughout the Nazi period, Mozart was only performed in German in the Reich. But, there was another problem. And that was that the standard translations of those three operas were by a man who was also Jewish. So, in the crazy, mad fanaticism, they actually commissioned new, de-judaized, German translations of the Mozart Italian operas. And actually so extreme, so weird, was this fanaticism, but even a Mozart Requiem suffered from this, because there is the word Zion, in the Latin text of the Mozart Requiem. So even that had to be, sort of exorcised, and removed. So as I said, Mozart was not the favourite of the Nazis, by any means. Even though in 1941, which was the 150th anniversary of Mozart’s death, they did, there was a big kind of Nazi jamboree for Mozart, in Vienna, in 1941. Right, now I’m going to see what questions and comments we have.

Q&A and Comments:

No, I didn’t know that Maria Ewing died on Sunday. She was, early on in her career, I think she was a terrific singer, wonderful singer. But I think she overreached herself later on singing roles that were entirely unsuitable for her, with the possible exceptional collaboration of composer Richard Wagner and his-

Oh yeah, nice comment, Dennis. The combination of Wagner and Wagner, as composer and librettist Lorenzo was a priest in his girlfriend, a nun, ran a house of ill repute in Venice. Yes, you’re quite right. And he palled around with Casanova. He was a very dodgy character, but I bet he was a lot of fun to be with. There is this, in his autobiography, he tells this outrageous story about how he composed the text for Don Giovanni with, I can’t remember how young the girl was. I think she was 13 or something that he was having sex with, and had Hungarian wine, and was doing all sorts of shenanigans while writing the text for Don Giovanni. On the Figaro programme page was the Star of David. Any significance? I don’t think there’ll be any, specifically Jewish significance to that, I don’t think so. I’ll have another look at it.

Q: First song?

A: The first thing I played, what was the first thing I played? It was, oh, it was, it was the Figaro aria from the Marriage of Figaro. Yes, Jane Glover, Mozart Women. I recommend it to you. It’s a very readable book, and very interesting. Love versus like, could simply be translated as , I like you very much, versus . Yeah, it’s a bit tricky though, isn’t it? If you’re trying to, for what I was trying to say, it’s about an attitude to women. Yes. Maybe Mozart , rather than, .

This is Arlene, I really enjoyed final dress rehearsal last week of Marriage of Figaro at Covent Gardens. I did not know any of the singers, but they all sang really well. It’s a tough sing, particularly for the Countess. I understand they’re all young Italian singers picked by Pappano. I’d love to hear, I’m going to talk about this next time in the context of Don Giovanni. I think there are huge pluses to having Italian singers in these Da Ponte operas. Mainly, for the rest of them, which are very difficult for non-Italian speakers.

This is Andy Sauna. Masonic Lodge was discovered behind a wall in the Andaz Hotel in Liverpool Street, London. The public can view it. Thank you, when I get back to London, I will go and have a look at that.

Q: How could Mozart accept Schikaneder’s misogynistic text?

A: I don’t know. I mean, on the whole, as I said, I think Mozart has a good record when it comes to attitudes to women. But I can never understand how he could accept the unbelievable piffle of . And I know I’m in really in trouble for saying that, 'cause lots, there are people who even claim that is feminist, that, I really do not get. If I were a woman, I’d be throwing rotten eggs at the stage. Mozart, according to Dr. Goodall, at five foot four. Well, it would’ve been, I suppose, I mean I think people were less tall anyway, in the 18th century. And I’m sure there are lots of very attractive men who are today, who are, only five foot four men.

No, yes, you’re right. Mensch is an authentic Yiddish word, not slang. That’s, you’re quite right about that. Freemasons Hall. Yes, what a year, 1933. That is kind of unintended symbolism. Mensch is a German word, and the slang is the Yiddish.

That’s what maybe, I’m not sure about this. I’ll have to check on this. You don’t understand. No, I think if yours, I think people would’ve, he’s talking about getting rid of superstition, getting rid of, of irrational ideas. So he’s promoting rational thought. And you may not think that’s anti-church, but they would’ve done at the time.

When you think that the great document of the Enlightenment was the , that was on the banned list at the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church did not want rational thought in the 18th century.

This is Gene Herbert saying toxicologists talk about Mozart’s death. Recent epidemiologically-informed historical research suggests he most likely died of, I don’t think I could even pronounce this, as a complication of a strep throat infection that was endemic during the winter months. That’s interesting. But of course, you know, people are always coming up with new ideas about these things.

Not sure about the greatest orchestra of the time, as the NBC Symphony Orchestra was formed by Toscanini. And there was a , and there was the Vienna. But I think generally speaking, at the time, the Berlin Phil was considered the number one. I’m not sure I’d really put, despite Toscanini, I’m not sure, I’d put NBC in quite that top league.

This is Helen. We saw production of the Magic Flute recently in Prague at the Estates Theatre. I’d love, I’ve never seen opera in that theatre, but how thrilling to see a Mozart opera in the theatre where Don Giovanni was premiered. Da Ponte, whose life was fascinating. He’s meant to have introduced Italian opera to New York before he had to leave there in a hurry. I’m sure Mozart knew. Yeah. I’m quite sure Mozart knew about. And I doubt, my guess is he didn’t really care one way or another. Beaumarchais had nothing to do with the Jews. That may be the case, I don’t really know about that. J'adore, for I love.

Yes, French use it a lot. A lot, a lot. I have these intense conversations every day at my favourite restaurant usually about films. And they’re always saying, “Ah, j'adore, j'adore, j'adore.”

Saw a production of Flute in Salzburg, took place in a mental hospital. Oh, please. Yes. Well, we know about these modern productions. And then to talk quite a lot about that next time, in relation to Don Giovanni. And I think that, I think I’m running out of questions.

• Patrick, thank you. That was fantastic. Thank you very, very much.

• [Patrick] Thank you, Wendy.

• Thanks, another brilliant presentation. Thank you everybody for joining us. Chat soon. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks a million. Bye-bye.