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is opposed to such a clash). Brzezinski, who praised Hunting- texts. It is wrong to cover for them by What is amiss, is Esposito’s treat- ton’s Clash of Civilizations, oversaw the referring simply to a “growing propensi- ment of the Inevitable Clash thesis, as operation that trained and armed a ty among senior government officials, simply the mistaken viewpoint of a global Afghansi network of itinerant political commentators, and the media colleague, Samuel P. Huntington. fighters and terrorists who were encour- to see a new ‘evil empire’ replacing the But, Huntington cannot be under- aged to act in the name of Islam and to communist threat.” stood from his published words alone, hate the West. They were used to pro- When we are faced with a handful nor can he be taken in isolation. voke the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, of policymakers who insist on policies Bernard Lewis of Princeton (who first and then to push the Soviets out. It doesn’t that will surely set civilization itself on promoted the Inevitable Clash to the matter much what Brzezinski says fire, a high standard of truthfulness is American public), Huntington, and about how it “just happened.” By their required to push them aside. Does acad- Zbigniew Brzezinski work together fruits ye shall know them. emic collegiality stand in the way? Is to promote the Clash, despite the It is wrong—untrue—to cover for Dr. Radovan Karadzic my esteemed sprinkling of words they use to cover Brzezinski and his friends, by treating colleague? themselves. them singly as the authors of mistaken —David Cherry Mozart’s Age of Republican Enterprise

n the decade after the American Revo- And, what changes occurred in the Ilution, ‘sequel’ [], when Mozart was probably the most crucial individual assumed full control?” in attempting to create a similar transfor- Now, the Boston Baroque team mation in Europe. In the autumn of brings us the world premiere recording 1791, Europe, and in particular, France of The Beneficent Dervish, created and and Austria, had their last, best chance to performed (March 1791) by the same wrench historical developments away Schikaneder group, but with the exclu- from what we today know as the rage- sion of Mozart. Coming so nicely, half- driven, oligarchy-controlled French Rev- way between The Philosopher’s Stone olution, a mockery of the American Rev- (September 1790), where Mozart com- olution.1 Mozart’s powerful and beautiful posed in collaboration with the other presentation in his opera, The Magic four, and The Magic Flute (September Flute, of the “republican” proof—that 1791), where Mozart composed alone, The Beneficent Dervish every man or woman whose heart could The Beneficent Dervish prompts a new, by Mozart’s Circle feel love, also had the capacity to develop third question: “How well does this and the mind, and to self-govern—was cap- team of Mozart’s collaborators do with- The Impresario turing and uplifting the general popula- out him?” by W.A. Mozart tion of Vienna. His collaborators in this Simply put, they do amazingly well. Boston Baroque, Martin project, Emanuel Schikaneder’s theater It is a delightful experience to hear this Pearlman, Director troupe, have been the subject of ongoing work. However, while my earlier com- Telarc CD, 2002, $17.98 investigation by researcher David Buch. parison of The Philosopher’s Stone to The The team of David Buch, the Boston Magic Flute put into relief the superior, both a happy group, and a group that Baroque ensemble, and Director Martin scientific quality of Mozart’s so-called fully needed Mozart’s intervention. So, Pearlman, has once again done all “magic,” the comparison of The Benefi- today’s listeners, lovers of Mozart’s friends and lovers of Mozart a service. cent Dervish to The Philosopher’s Stone Magic Flute, can now hear two different Earlier, in 1999, this team recorded the allows the listener to hear Schikaneder’s “trial runs” of the Mozart/Schikaneder world premiere of The Philosopher’s group play, as it were, while the teacher team, setting into relief Mozart’s pro- Stone, composed in 1790 by the musical is out of the room. Without Mozart, found transformation of somewhat sim- leaders of Schikaneder’s troupe, which, they do veer more into the world of ilar material. as David Buch was able to prove, magic for the story-line, leaving the included Mozart. In reviewing the work important transformations of the text, Schikaneder’s Troupe at that time,2 this author posed two and of the music, for another time. But In reviewing The Philosopher’s Stone, I major questions: “Why would Mozart they are literate, occasionally a little provided an extensive history of the col- work with a team of five composers? inspired, and they do have fun. This is laboration of Mozart and Schikaneder in

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© 2002 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. their republican mission, during and just after the American Revolution, of uplift- ing the cultural level—and the capacity for sustained joy and optimism—of the general population in Austria and Ger- many. This included the key role of the translations of Shakespeare into German by Christoph Martin Wieland. Increas- ingly, from the mid-1770’s on, Schikaneder’s theater troupes performed plays of Shakespeare, Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller. And between 1789 and 1791 in Vienna, Schikaneder had four of Wieland’s fairy tales worked into operas for his —the three n o i t already mentioned, plus . Later, c e l l o

in 1791, Mozart himself evidently agreed C r e to set Shakespeare’s Tempest to music, g n a r although he did not live long enough to G e h begin work on it. T David Buch has discovered that The Beneficent Dervish was performed before Scene from “The Magic Flute” (left to right): Tamino, Pamina, Papageno. The Magic Flute, and can be usefully heard with that in mind. Previously, it , always has a comical much fuller life. had been thought (e.g., according to sidekick, Lubano/Mandolino/Papageno, The character of The Beneficent Schikaneder expert Kurt Honolka) that played by Emanuel Schikaneder, with Dervish opera is established early on, in Dervish was first performed in Septem- his sweetheart/wife, Lubanara/Man- the hilarious duet of the peasant couple, ber 1793. However, as Pearlman’s help- dolina/Papagena. The prince, of course, Mandolino and Mandolina. She has ful accompanying notes summarize, seeks to win his princess, Nadine/Zeno- caught him with a straying eye, and pro- David Buch has located evidence for a mide/Pamina (the part that Mozart most ceeds to beat him (“Pritsch! Pratsch!”). pre-Magic Flute dating. His three most thoroughly transformed). Another of And when he tries to escape (“Watch pertinent pieces of evidence are: the composers, Franz Xaver Gerl, sang out! I’ll jump in the water and drown • A March 1791 diary entry, by the the role, Eutifronte/Dervish/Zaras- myself”), she jumps into the water after prolix Karl Zinzendorf, regarding his tro (another role that underwent serious him—to use the rudder to keep hitting visit to Schikaneder’s theater to see the development). him. As he promises to reform, she has opera; Perhaps the most striking connec- him repeat after her, “Dearest, only, best • A 1791 book in the Austrian tion of The Beneficent Dervish to The of wives!”—although he still needs National Library, including some of the Magic Flute, is the aria of the dervish at more of the “Pritsch! Pratsch!” Finally, vocal texts; and the opening of Act III, “So bald der with his repeating “I’d like to live with • Newspaper ads, offering for sale Mann.” It is, for this reviewer, the you alone!,” forgiveness is effected. arrangements from The Beneficent most substantial part of this light- Within a mere two-minute period, the Dervish, beginning in April 1791. weight opera, and it foreshadows brawl, with believable percussive effects, So, Buch, having properly re-situated Zarastro in The Magic Flute, when he has turned into a tender conclusion: this opera, has justified hearing this sings to Pamina his warm and calming “Seldom are man and wife as close as we lighter work as a special window into aria, “In diesen heilgen Hallen.” The two, we live like children and are one the world of the Magic Flute troupe, not dervish, in this opera about the cold soul and body!” The games men and more than six months removed. calculations of women’s hearts and the women play are succinctly and ludi- consequent dangers to gullible men, crously portrayed. The Dervish gives loving, fatherly advice to the The scene was designed for The Beneficent Dervish also preserves many Prince: “Therefore before you love her, Schikaneder’s comic specialty. (I might of the same character roles as The Philoso- test her! Both the woman and the add, that, after hearing Kevin Deas’ pher’s Stone and The Magic Flute. The workings of her heart.” This feature, singing in Schikaneder’s original roles Prince Nadir/Sofrano/Tamino role (listed the investigation of the inner workings of Lubano and Mandolino, I am per- in the chronological order of the operas in of the heart, is seized upon by Mozart suaded that his is actually Schikaned- which they appear), originally played by in The Magic Flute, where it takes on a er’s voice! He seems both quite com-

107 fortable, and convincing, in Schikaned- ductory, instrumental music from the banal (though surely not quite as insipid er’s role.) opera, and upon the vocal material. as what we’ve achieved in our own The paradoxical plight of male- Then, in a coda section, he combines time). female relations doesn’t get resolved at a material from both parts together, con- In the wake of the victory at York- higher level in this opera, however. We trapuntally. This is the sort of mind that town, when America turned the world hear a women’s chorus (“Enslaving men addresses the higher forces at work, upside-down on the British oligarchy, is what we enjoy!”), followed by a lovely behind the “magical” moments of our brawls and controversies in Europe aria by Princess Zenomide, the object of lives. swirled around Mozart’s revolutionary Prince Sofrano’s love. She begins “Sofra- It was also at this time (March 7, transformation of the Abduction libret- no, had you felt my pain since our last 1791) that Schikaneder asked Mozart to to. Mozart dramatically altered the bitter parting . . . ,” then she questions compose The Magic Flute. Further, the story-line by replacing the importance his commitment, claiming that “If you very next day, Mozart entered into his of blood-line descent, with the grace of feel nothing more for me, so be it, I shall music catalogue a new work, “Per ques- agapic charity—and this, the most gladly die for you.” There is seemingly ta bella mano,” a concert aria (K. 612) “Christian” action in the opera, was nothing insincere in the words or the for the bass, Gerl, who sang the role of carried out by the feared Turkish musical setting. Any man in the audi- the dervish. The aria is notable for the pasha!4 ence would want to believe the maiden. string bass, written for Friedrich Pis- Threats, palace intrigues, and However, when they next meet, she is chlberger, who played in Schikaneder’s arrests put an end, by 1783, to the Ger- singing to Sofrano an entrancing ballad- theater orchestra.3 Given the involve- man-language national theater project story, only to distract him and steal his ment of Mozart with the theater troupe, of Joseph II. So, for Joseph to arrange wealth from him! not only in the previous fall with The an elaborate, costly party on Feb. 7, One would think the Prince might Philosopher’s Stone, but during the 1786, with a German operetta by learn a lesson from this. But not this March presentation of The Beneficent Mozart to be performed directly prince, and not in this comedy. Earlier, Dervish, I can’t but think that the com- against an Italian operetta, one might in the opening of the opera, the Prince posers benefitted from Mozart’s benefi- assume that there was, very likely, was certainly good-hearted enough to cence throughout. something on the Emperor’s mind. take in, and care for, the dervish, who During these same winter months of Evidently, Joseph himself had pro- had appeared at the Prince’s door as an early 1791, Mozart, the third Court posed to Johann Gottlieb Stephanie, ill beggar. Sofrano explains that it was Composer, was being under-utilized by Mozart’s librettist from the Abduction, simply his duty as a human being. But the Austrian Court. Emperor Leopold II that he compose the story-line for The Sofrano, after his duty is done, is shown had not yet settled on Mozart for the Impresario, taking as his subject, the to be mainly excited by money and love, major commission of La Clemenza de problem of the egos of sopranos in a singing: “Truly I can’t contain myself. Tito. He was being paid to write dance German-language opera company. Money and love smile upon me.” In this music, minuets. On a receipt for pay- Meanwhile, Joseph also proposed to opera, it will take the beneficence of a ment for some of these minuets, Mozart Salieri that he compose something in guardian angel, some liberal doses of wrote: “Too much for what I did, not Italian, dealing with the difficulties magic, and, of course, some peasant enough for what I could do.” Which between the demands of a librettist, cleverness, to deal with the evil hearts of brings us to the other offering on this and of a composer.5 Joseph arranged women. CD. for the two troupes to present their offerings to his dinner party, using two Mozart, March 1791 The Impresario different stages, set at different ends of Mozart might have made his thoughts Mozart had done revolutionary work the hall. The elaborate party was in known to Schikaneder at the time. At for Joseph II’s Austria, back in 1781/2, honor of Joseph’s sister, the Arch- the same time that this happy farce was when he had first come to Vienna. His duchess Marie Christine, and her con- playing on stage (March 1791), Mozart Abduction from the Seraglio was the sin- sort, Duke Albert, who was Joseph’s popularized Schikaneder’s troupe by gularly successful operatic work for Governor-General for the Austrian composing a set of eight variations upon Emperor Joseph II’s German-language Netherlands. “Ein Weib ist das herrlichste Ding!” (“A national theater project. Joseph II had Stephanie engaged his two lead wife is a wonderful thing!”) This was a discussed and planned with the drama- singers from The Abduction, Valentin selection from an earlier production of tist Gotthold Lessing, to launch such a Adamberger and Caterina Cavalieri. the troupe, created by Benedikt Schack project, as vital to uplifting his popula- Further, Mozart’s sister-in-law, Aloysia and Franz Xaver Gerl. But, instead of tion, uplifting the language they spoke, Weber, was engaged as the soprano to simply spinning out eight variations to and the thoughts capable of being duel with Cavalieri. Stephanie set the ornament the sung theme, Mozart fash- expressed in the language. Outside of farce in , probably reflecting ions something special. He creates varia- this project, the German-language Mozart’s satiric attitude about the back- tions, separately, upon both the intro- entertainment in Vienna was fairly wardness enjoyed by the ruler of his

108 private dinner party, Count Zinzendorf, nothing if not snooty, thought The Impresario was very mediocre. However, what Emperor Joseph II intended by the affair, and what he thought of the result, is not known. What is known, is that he was in the middle of the most intense brawl of his life. The Figaro Project As of February 1786, Joseph II had been the sole ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for just over five years. In brief, his reforms had attempted to break the n o i t c Empire from its feudalism, and to e l l o

C develop its manpower. He freed the r e g serfs; granted religious toleration to n a r

G Protestants and to Jews; encouraged sci- e h

T ence, mining, metallurgy, and agricul- Finale of the ecumenical “Abduction from the Seraglio.” ture; allowed a freedom for public debate and for publishing; and estab- hometown, Archbishop Colloredo. seems to come not from the period lished public hospitals, public works, Stephanie has a comic actor named instruments, nor from the unvibrated and a broader public education. The Buff tell an impresario, one Herr Frank, fingering, but from the top, from a con- entrenched Austro-Hungarian nobility to hire cheap actors and singers, so he ceptual level, which then carries resisted the development of their newly can spend his money on bribing the crit- through in the voices and instruments. freed population, no less than did the ics: “Leave your good taste at home . . . . The singers’ voices convey the text and embittered Confederate landowners The world wants to be deceived.” Much the interplay of the roles, leaving one after Lincoln’s victories. They ridiculed fun is had with the dueling sopranos, as almost hearing the visual images of Joseph’s attempts to enrich the public they have trouble fitting their egos in actors on stage. The whole affair is mind by such means as his German with the larger purpose of the theatrical quite good fun. Finally, Mozart seems National Theater. After Mozart’s close presentation. Stephanie has the voice of to have composed the music to be its collaboration with Joseph in 1781/2 with reason try to calm the sopranos, arguing own character in the operetta, which The Abduction, the massive political that “Harmony’s the greatest virtue I more than once brings the egos back to counter-attack kept Joseph away from can recommend to us.” He brings back reason, and Pearlman’s orchestra prop- his best collaborators during 1783 and his non-singing comic actor, Buff, to erly recreates this role. 1784. deliver his joke at the expense of all the Nonetheless, the work is a curious So, in 1785, when Joseph agreed to singers, upon which joke Stephanie matter, which somehow seems quite a have Mozart compose Figaro, it was a seems to have hung his whole story. distance from the issues Mozart was major breakthrough, and Mozart fighting out with Joseph II at that pre- focussed his creativity, and his recent Pearlman’s Performance cise time. Mozart’s music for The Impre- musical-scientific discoveries,6 upon Now, in a polemical work such as this, sario is marvelously better than the story making operatic and political history. ridiculing the egos of singers, it is cer- deserves, and seems to reflect, more The conditions under which the tainly not good form to have the singers than anything else, the transcendent Emperor proceeded, were that the simply display their voices in perfor- work he was then engaged in, the opera Figaro play by Beaumarchais only be mance! Perhaps, only in such a semi- . allowed on stage in Italian as opera. literate age as ours, could such a mis- When the Stephanie/Mozart Impre- (The head of the Secret Police, Count take occur, but occur they often do. sario and the Salieri work were per- Anton Pergen, had banned the play in Fortunately, this is not the case in this formed a few days later for the public, German, in February 1785, when performance, as Pearlman’s troupe two different Vienna papers praised the Schikaneder had proposed performing seems happy to get into the spirit of the former. One singled out Mozart’s music it. Pergen’s defenders claim that he did work. as “containing some special beauties . . . ,” this at the bequest of the Emperor; the Further, the recording is said to be while another thought the German behind-the-scenes brawl within the the first one on period instruments, work “infinitely superior” to the Italian Court, however, can only be surmised.) and, for what it is worth, it is quite one, adding, “that is surely not the result Minimally, the Emperor very much clean. But the authenticity, fortunately, of national pride.” Meanwhile, at the wanted Figaro, as an Italian opera, to be

109 aimed at his reactionary nobility. head to usury. (Joseph’s brother-in-law, upward [maximizing the pain] and then Just as the Count Almaviva in Figaro King Louis XVI of France, was in a displayed on a gibbet.”7 Vienna was has agreed on paper to renounce the feu- similar situation. Neither country suc- transfixed by the spectacle, and it would dal droit du seigneur (the nobility’s bestial ceeded in following the lead of their appear that nothing was so hotly debat- “right of the first night” to every newly- friends in America, Benjamin Franklin, ed that spring, as the execution. Joseph II wed on the property), but still spends George Washington, and Alexander seemed to be increasingly unable to most of the opera trying to re-assert that Hamilton, who would deal with the control the “Pergen” faction, as they right de facto, so also the ridiculousness 1785/6 crises, by organizing the Federal would succeed in getting their colonial of the Austrian nobility was to be put on powers of the Constitutional Conven- war, and massively increased police stage, having agreed to the Emperor’s tion of 1787.) powers. reforms on paper, but doing everything The “Bruderschaften”—the equiva- Joseph had benefitted greatly from to re-impose feudal slavery, de facto. lent of the “Savings & Loans” for the his joint operation with Mozart on The Their hearts were not reconciled to lov- burgeoning middle class—were largely Abduction back in 1782, winning several ing and developing their fellow man. wiped out in Austria. Ignaz Born, the years to push ahead on his reforms. He The story of Mozart’s transformation of “Benjamin Franklin” of Vienna, who seems not to have reaped the marvelous opera in fashioning a comedy of such later was the model for Mozart’s Zaras- benefits of Mozart’s ever-so-much-more- intense joy and agape¯, remains for tro, was pushed out of control of the powerful Figaro in 1786. Looking back another time. city’s Masonic lodges, leaving them to upon that curious February party, with lesser minds. Also, there are indications Mozart’s Impresario, one hears a fascinat- The Curious Impresario that Mozart knew that spring, that the ing mix: beautiful, dramatic music upon Mozart composed The Impresario Venetian agent Casanova was involved a modestly funny libretto, drawn from a between Jan. 18 and Feb. 3, 1786, in the in an attempt to compromise Joseph II theme chosen by an Emperor, which midst of his work on Figaro—which in a sexual entrapment. And, finally, seems most poignantly, too little, too late. had begun seriously in the fall of 1785, Count Pergen, the man who had Mozart’s previously cited 1791 com- and which was debuted on May 1, 1786. ordered the ban on Figaro as a drama, ment—that he was being paid by the Mozart had an agenda for the Emperor was given increased police powers, Court for his ballets, “too much for what that was larger than the compositional undermining the republican law efforts I did, not enough for what I could do”— themes the Emperor had suggested to of Mozart’s friend Sonnenfels. has its 1786 corollary: He did more than Stephanie and Salieri for the February Between the time the Emperor heard anyone had ever done, but was paid too contest. Mozart’s The Impresario may the two works, The Impresario and little attention, too late. well be a curious work, as it is the prod- Figaro, one gory event situates the —David M. Shavin uct of a curious situation. While Joseph II unravelling of the situation. Joseph at least had on his mind the republican- either gave in to, or agreed with, the re- 1. Pierre Beaudry, “Why France Did Not vs.-oligarchic themes that were wrapped imposition of the death penalty, which Have an American Revolution,” Executive up in the controversy over German-vs.- he himself had ended back in 1776. On Intelligence Review, Jan. 18, 2002 (Vol. 29, No. 2). Italian music, it remains unclear what March 10, 1786, one month after the 2. David Shavin, “A Mozartian Warm-Up he intended for this elaborate dinner. It Impresario party, 30,000 spectators for The Magic Flute,” review of The would appear that Stephanie did not turned out in Vienna for the execution Philosopher’s Stone, or The Enchanted Isle, plan anything so revolutionary as the of a nobleman, one Franz Zaglauer von Fidelio, Spring 2000 (Vol. IX, No. 1). intervention that Mozart was planning Zahlheim, who had robbed and mur- 3. H.C. Robbins Landon, 1791: Mozart’s Last for the spring; and that Mozart was con- dered an older woman whom he had Year (New York: Schirmer Books, 1988), tent to shower his Figaro-like music courted. p. 36. 4. See David Shavin, “Mozart and the Amer- upon the lesser vehicle, and wait another The order, under the Emperor’s sig- ican Revolutionary Upsurge,” Fidelio, ten weeks or so for his major interven- nature, was that “in accordance with the Winter 1992 (Vol. I, No. 4). tion in the Court. regulations of the ‘Nemesis Therre- 5. Robert W. Gutman, Mozart (New York: However, the events of that winter siana,’ the death penalty described there- Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1999), p. 652. and spring indicate that the feudal oli- in shall be administered without mercy 6. See Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., “Mozart’s garchy was getting the upper hand on to the delinquent . . . [G]lowing hot pin- 1782-1786 Revolution in Music,” Fidelio, Winter 1992 (Vol. I, No. 4). Joseph. By the beginning of 1786, the cers shall be applied to the left and right 7. Volkmar Braunbehrens, Mozart in Vienna, financial situation in Austria was turn- sides of his chest . . . [H]is body shall be 1781-1791 (New York: Grove Widenfeld, ing ugly, as the Court was in over its broken on the wheel from the feet 1990), p. 273.

Picture Credits, back cover montage (clockwise from top right): Woodrow Wilson, National Archives; KKK rally, SNCC; Mussolini and Hitler, National Archives; Hilaire Belloc, www.arttoday.com; John Crowe Ransom and Robert Penn Warren, Kenyon College website; Al Gore, EIRNS/Stuart Lewis; Newt Gingrich, EIRNS/Stuart Lewis; Zbigniew Brzezinski, EIRNS/Stuart Lewis; Henry Kissinger and William F. Buckley, EIRNS/Philip Ulanowsky; Bertrand Russell, UNESCO/Claude Bablin; H.G. Wells, www.arttoday.com. 110