Representations of the feminine in Mozart’s Operas

You are all very welcome to attend the next seminar in the IMR's "Directions in Musical Research" series: 11 February 2010, 5.00pm Room G35, Senate House (South Block), Malet Street, LONDON WC1E 7HU Charles Ford (IMR) Chair: Eric Clarke (Oxford) The thought of the European, and most especially, the Viennese Enlightenment, is implicit within the chords, melodies, rhythms and textures of Mozart's music for his operas with Da Ponte – Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. I will illustrate with recorded examples how the Enlightenment's understanding of sexuality -- identities, relationships and morality -- 'resounds' in this music. Women in these operas, apart from the soubrettes, are always distressed. They never sing out to the audience. Mozart's music revels in this distress, as I will show in one extraordinary recitativo accompagnato in Così fan tutte. Professor John Irving Director of The Institute of Musical Research