Recognition in Mozart's Operas [Paperback]

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. InRecognition inMozart'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.

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 Zauberfl?te
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
D?nouement and lieto fine
Recognition Prepared and Denied
Life without the Don

Chapter 6: Sense and Sensibility in Cos? fan tutte
Resisting the Ending
Reading Cos? for the sentimen
The Language of Sentilã