In Need of God: Mozart, Faith, and Così fan tutte
This article offers readers a theological entrée to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comic opera, Così fan tutte, written in collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte in 1789. It engages the opera as a means of social and theological criticism. The opera presents Mozart’s understanding of love through a critical...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2017]
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| In: |
Theology today
Year: 2017, Volume: 74, Issue: 2, Pages: 112-137 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KDB Roman Catholic Church |
| Further subjects: | B
Freemasonry
B Mozart B de la Mettrie B Così fan tutte B Religion B Catholic Enlightenment B Materialism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article offers readers a theological entrée to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comic opera, Così fan tutte, written in collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte in 1789. It engages the opera as a means of social and theological criticism. The opera presents Mozart’s understanding of love through a critical engagement with the late Enlightenment and French materialism. While da Ponte’s libretto may well endorse materialism’s attack on the church and on Christian anthropology, Mozart’s music is more ambiguous: on the one hand, it demonstrates the weakness of Baroque Catholicism to withstand the rationalist criticism of the Enlightenment; on the other hand, it exposes the sobering reality which such rationalist materialism itself produces—a reality marked by strained and ultimately impoverished human relationships. |
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| ISSN: | 2044-2556 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Theology today
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0040573617716616 |
