Status Updates From Mozart and His Operas

Cairns goes to great length to refute the sexism claims in the texts of Mozart's librettists by exploring how deeply engaged the pathos of the music is with the characters themselves. There is no evidence that Mozart had an ounce of sexism or misogyny in him, yet how can one reconcile this aspect of his character with the sung text? By looking at how his music develops these characters into whole human beings.

There are times when Cairns can't rein in his adjectives and verbs for a Mozart opera: "...the long quiet trumpet notes... the baleful entry of the horns sealing the oath of vengeance... the heaving phrase in the violins... the insolent horn arpeggio... the magical erotic effect of the strings... the sinister, gliding movement of [violas]... the pale enchanted tones..." etc. All this taking up 80% of one page.

[On Don Giovanni] Is there any other opera that has this spellbinding effect, the almost palpable emanation that rises before you like a physical presence and takes you over body and soul when you hear a passage from it? E.T.A. Hoffmann called it 'the opera of all operas'. Rossini, when asked which of his own works he preferred, replied, 'Don Giovanni'
- p.145