Waldoff, Jessica - Recognition in Mozart's Operas

Since its beginnings, opera has depended on recognition as a central aspect of both plot and theme. Though a standard feature of opera, recognition -- a moment of new awareness that brings about a crucial reversal in the action-has been largely neglected in opera studies. In Recognition in Mozart's Operas, musicologist Jessica Waldoff draws on a broad base of critical thought on recognition from Aristotle to Terence Cave to explore the essential role it plays in Mozart's operas. The result is a fresh approach to the familiar question of opera as drama and a persuasive new reading of Mozart's operas.

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CONTENTS

Table of Contents
Introduction
Recognition: An Introduction
Recognition as a New Perspective
Figaro's Scar as the Signature of a Fiction
Chapter 1: Operatic Enlightenment in Die Zauberflote
Enlightenment as Metaphor
Tamino's Recognition: Wann wird das Licht mein Auge finden?
Pamina, Papageno, and the End of the Opera
The Scandal of Recognition
Chapter 2: Recognition Scenes in Theory and Practice
Recognition in Classical and Contemporary Poetics
Recognitions of Identity in Mozart
Disguise and Its Discovery
The Quest for Self-Discovery
What Recognition Brings in the End
Chapter 3: Reading Opera for the Plot
Plot in Contemporary Poetics and Opera
Plotting in Le nozze di Figaro
Mozart and the Plot that is Well Worked Out
Chapter 4: Sentimental Knowledge in La finta giardiniera
La vera and la finta giardiniera
Reading Opera for the sentiment
Sandrina as Virtue in Distress
Count Belfiore, Madness, and the Restorative Recognition
Chapter 5: Don Giovanni: Recognition Denied
The Problem of the Ending
Denouement and lieto fine
Recognition Prepared and Denied
Life without the Don
Chapter 6: Sense and Sensibility in Cosi fan tutte
Resisting the Ending
Reading Cosi for the sentimen
The Language of Sentimental Knowledge
Vorrei dir, Smanie implacabili, and Questions of Parody
Positions of Knowledge
Chapter 7: Fiordiligi: A Woman of Feeling
The Ideal of the Phoenix
Fiordiligi, Ferrarese, and Come scoglio
Per pieta: Recognition Denied
The Triumph of Feeling over Constancy
Chapter 8: La clemenza di Tito: The Sense of the Ending
The Language of clemenza and pieta
The Politics of Tyranny
Vitellia's Transformation
Sesto's Conflict
Tito's Clemency
Afterword
I called him a Papageno
Beyond Mozart
Works Cited