The Politics of Opera: A History from Monteverdi to Mozart

by Mitchell Cohen

A wide-ranging look at the interplay of opera and political ideas through the centuries

The Politics of Opera takes readers on a fascinating journey into the entwined development of opera and politics, from the Renaissance through the turn of the nineteenth century. What political backdrops have shaped opera? How has opera conveyed the political ideas of its times? Delving into European history and thought and an array of music by such greats as Lully, Rameau, and Mozart, Mitchell Cohen reveals how politics―through story lines, symbols, harmonies, and musical motifs―has played an operatic role both robust and sotto voce.

Cohen begins with opera's emergence under Medici absolutism in Florence during the late Renaissance―where debates by humanists, including Galileo's father, led to the first operas in the late sixteenth century. Taking readers to Mantua and Venice, where composer Claudio Monteverdi flourished, Cohen examines how early operatic works like Orfeo used mythology to reflect on governance and policy issues of the day, such as state jurisdictions and immigration. Cohen explores France in the ages of Louis XIV and the Enlightenment and Vienna before and during the French Revolution, where the deceptive lightness of Mozart's masterpieces touched on the havoc of misrule and hidden abuses of power. Cohen also looks at smaller works, including a one-act opera written and composed by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Essential characters, ancient and modern, make appearances throughout: Nero, Seneca, Machiavelli, Mazarin, Fenelon, Metastasio, Beaumarchais, Da Ponte, and many more.

An engrossing book that will interest all who love opera and are intrigued by politics, The Politics of Opera offers a compelling investigation into the intersections of music and the state.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

512 pages, Hardcover

Published September 5, 2017

About the author

Mitchell Cohen is an author, political essayist and, since 1991, co-editor of Dissent, one of America's leading intellectual quarterlies. Born in New York in 1952, he received his doctorate from Columbia University. He is professor of political science at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Reviews

[Lucy Barnhouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is gorgeously written, lucidly argued, and, to me, irritating. It purports to be a book concerning the politics of opera. It is a book concerning the politics of opera libretti, opera librettists, sometimes of composers, frequently of the cities in which operas were composed and performed. Discussions of music are comparatively infrequent, and superficial enough to make me nearly sob with frustration (and I am, when it comes to musicology, that mythical creature, the educated layperson.)

[John Mauceri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am about 30% into this book and find Cohen's wisdom to be overwhelming. Okay, for opera lovers this book exists before the standard repertory is launched. No Verdi, Wagner, or Puccini. However, discussions of standardization of pitch (1939!) and even the name "opera," not to mention reminding us that saying "Italy" referring to the birthplace of the art form is anachronistic--all of this is so terrific and important that (for me) it transcends my lack of knowing any of these early works (in so far as they are knowable) and elevates the conversation into how/if musical theater relates to the larger issue of politics and political activity. Quite simply, I am tremendously grateful for this book.

[Mary Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe this book is a text book. I love opera, so I thought I would enjoy it a lot more than I did. There's lots of information about the history of the times, and also mythology, but the connections to opera are scarce.

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book that I had stashed in the little bath for a few months. I expected a bit more about well, opera, but I did find the exploration of politics, free-masonry (who knew?) and music to be interesting. I found that it dovetailed in with Father John's Strickland's series on the history of Christianity in the West well, which was unexpected.

[Raymundo · Rating 2 out of 5]

La parte que vale la pena es la última que se enfoca en Mozart, las demás hay mucho relleno, y habla de las operas en sí, no tanto de la situación política, y los problemas para publicar ciertas óperas. Lectura muy técnica.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, but at times formulaic.