18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 33

[cahn]

And, I mean, it doesn't have to be just 18th century characters, either!

(also, waiting for Yuletide!)

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Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790 - C - Music

[selenak]

The relevant chapter, starting on page 455 if you want to read it entirely, cahn, is titled: "Music and drama, with special reference to Mozart". Here, our Mr. Beales has an axe to grind.

Music was the one art in which Joseph participated regularly and enthusiastically. Despite the well-known portrayal of him in the play and film "Amadeus" as a musical ignoramus, he was in fact exceptionally knowledgeable about music. The composer Dittersdorf reported a long discussion he had with the emperor in which Joseph made an intelligent comparison between Haydn and the poet Gellert on the one hand, and Mozart and the poet Klopstock on the other. The essential point of it was that both Haydn's and Gellert's works has an immediate appeal, whereas both Mozart's and Klopstock's had to be heard or rad more than once for their beauties to be appreciated. Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstreous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question where those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.

While Orsini-Rosenberg was the nominal guy in charge of theatre affairs, Joseph was the de facto impressario of the Burgtheater/Nationaltheater. However far he was from Vienna, he sent specific orders to Rosenberg about the day-to-day running of the theatre. He made all the importanta and many lesser decisions, personally selecting librettists, composers, singers and operas. When in Vienna, he rarely missed a performance, and he often also attended rehearsals. On one occasion Zinzendorf found him singing an opera to himself from the score.

Precisely because Joseph had cut down nearly all other court activies, theatre and opera were the one chance where there was still a chance for the aristocrats to show off in the audience, so while there were music lovers attending, there were also people who wanted to flirt, do business and socially interact (which they would have usually done at court parties). But it was one aspect of Joseph's reforming theatrical management that, unlilke at most courts, the audience paid for their boxes and seats..

I already mentioned his encouragement of German plays and operas. (With the Entführung as the most prominent example. This very much annoyed the upper classes in Vienna at first, since they were used to French and Italian opera and plays only. But it made Vienna cutting edge, musically speaking, since Berlin stuck with the old under Fritz, and Paris was about to have a revolution and thus change everything anyway. More about Beales' axe:

It has become Joseph's chief claim to fame that he was Mozart's emperor. Some writers believe him to have blighted the composer's career. Robbins Landon, author of a biography of Heydn, declares that "Joseph's negative attitude was of catastrophic effect, particularly in Mozart's case." This is a grotesque misjudgment. In fact, Mozart was fortunate in finding in the emperor, for all his quirks, a warm admirer and a steady supporter.

Salieri had become Joseph's court composer at age 24, in 1774. Short of firing him, which Salieri had done nothing to deserve, there was therefore no way Joseph could have made Mozart court composer (there was only one), but he did create an office for him, "Kammermusicus" (chamber musician), at a salary of 800 Florins a year. Far from yawning at the Figaropremière, Joseph liked the opera so much that he ordered it performed for his guests at Laxenburg in June the same year. Don Giovanni had been commissioned bya Prague impresario, not Joseph, but Joseph had hoped to have it performed for the wedding of his niece to a prince of Saxony in Pargue in October 1787. When it wasn't ready yet at his point, the Emperor ordered Figaro to be performed at the wedding instead. It was Joseph who commissioned and possibly suggested the plot of Cosi fan tutte, which was first performed a few days before he died.

(La Clemenza di Tito, which Mozart wrote for Leopold's coronation, was badly received - Leopold's wife called it "una porcheria tedesca" - and that was it in terms of Habsburg encouragement. But that was not Joseph's fault!)

Another fascinating detail in the music chapter is that there was an opera version of Beamarchais Barber of Seville - by Paisiello, today forgotten because of the later Rossini opera - several years pre-Figaro, thus proving that a successful opera version of a French four act play could be done, and wetting the appetite for the sequel play to be made into an opera as well.

re: censorship - theatre censorship was much stricter than print censorship, but the original censorship of Beaumarchais' play Figaro's Wedding (which meant that Da Ponte and Mozart had to ask for permission before getting their opera version licencsed - doesn't have to have been political in nature. Beales points out that censor licensed Weidmann's piece Die schöne Wienerin in which a black servant says to his master, Count Fixstern: "Nature made me free when I was born, as free as you! I am flesh and blood like you. The same sun shines on us, the same earth bears and feeds us; we live and die in the same manner."

So possibly the original problem with Figaro befor da Ponte reworked it wasn't Figaro's cutting sarcastic speech about the aristocracy but the frivolous sexual shenigans. (In Beaumarchais, the Countess does have a fling with Cherubino, while da Ponte made her blameless.) The bit in Amadeus where the ballet is reinstated because Joseph shows up for rehearsal, watches the music-less pantomine and asks what the hell is going on is based on fact, except that unlike in Amadeus, Joseph showing up for rehearsal was not unusual and Mozart had in fact counted on it. (The reason why a ballet was forbidden before was because Joseph hated the ballet interludes in French operas which were usually not connected to the plot and were thus pretty pointless in his eyes. Since the ballet in Figaro's Wedding is connected to the plot, this reason did not apply, and so Joseph ordered it reinstated.

In conclusion, Beales quotes Austrian writer Caroline Pichler, writing as an old lady in 1840 about the Vienna of her youth:

In social circles, instead of the previous stiffness and archaism, a lively vigour prevailed. The theatre, to which Joseph gave his personal care, did a great deal to promote this social benefit. Under the direction of the monarch our stages soon became among the best for German plays, and perhaps the finest then existing for Italian operas, not even Italy ecepted; for the emperor had got to know the theatres of other countries on hist ravels and himself engaged the best singers of both sexes. So from our opera the second and third sopranos went back to Italy and appeared everywhere as first sopranos. (...) The public participated in the theatre in a manner very different from now. It sought intellectual pleasure, not just pastime.

Re: Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790 - C - Music

[mildred_of_midgard]

Not much to say about this, but it was interesting.

"Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstreous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question where those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.

This makes perfect sense, and I'm going to share it with my wife, because she brings up that quote whenever I mention Joseph. (She has only pop culture knowledge of this period, although these days she has some gossipy sensationalism knowledge too. :P)

Re: Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790 - C - Music

[cahn]

ahahahaha, this is also the One Thing I knew about Joseph before salon, thanks to Amadeus! (And selenak had to tell me that it was a mistranslation -- her translation is very close to Beales, but Beales additionally discusses the pronouns -- when I finally listened to Entführung.)

Re: Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790 - C - Music

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ah, thank you for this! I'm very pleased to have the German. :)

Re: Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790 - C - Music

[cahn]

Ooh, thank you! :D

But he probably said something like "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstreous many notes."

Deleted my previous line here, because I found where you'd explained it to me before :) (I'll link it for mildred in her comment.) Well, anyway, as you know, I rather do think it's too many notes :P :) but of course, only in hindsight, knowing what Mozart would eventually produce, which isn't fair to early Mozart :)

Far from yawning at the Figaropremière, Joseph liked the opera so much that he ordered it performed for his guests at Laxenburg in June the same year.

:D This makes me happy! (I really, really like Figaro.)

(La Clemenza di Tito, which Mozart wrote for Leopold's coronation, was badly received - Leopold's wife called it "una porcheria tedesca" - and that was it in terms of Habsburg encouragement. But that was not Joseph's fault!)

This makes me unhappy, because I really like Clemenza too :P But at least, like you/Beales say, not Joseph's fault!

So possibly the original problem with Figaro befor da Ponte reworked it wasn't Figaro's cutting sarcastic speech about the aristocracy but the frivolous sexual shenigans.

Oh, okay, this is really interesting! I'd always assumed (and I'm pretty sure read in a couple of pop-history places) that it was the political content.

(In Beaumarchais, the Countess does have a fling with Cherubino, while da Ponte made her blameless.)

I hate stagings of opera!Figaro that imply a relationship between the Countess and Cherubino -- in my opinion da Ponte's libretto is really clear on that point :P But I did at some point read a synopsis of the third Beaumarchais play, about the Countess's son by Cherubino, and then I had to admit that, oh fine, maybe the plays are different :P (I still claim the third Beaumarchais play doesn't take place after Mozart's opera! That would make me sad :P )

The reason why a ballet was forbidden before was because Joseph hated the ballet interludes in French operas which were usually not connected to the plot and were thus pretty pointless in his eyes.

I am totally with you there, Joseph!

ETA: Going back to Amadeus -- of course, all of this about Joseph not liking music, etc. is from Shaffer!Salieri's potentially highly unreliable perspective. Is it possible that Shaffer knew Joseph was highly knowledgeable about music, and that this was an example of Salieri being an unreliable narrator? I mean, of course, Shaffer!Salieri is an extremely fictional creature, so Shaffer!Joseph might be as well and that's all there might be to it -- but it occurred to me that it could add another layer to Shaffer!Salieri's story.

Re: Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790 - C - Music

[selenak]

Possible, but I think - I could be wrong, it's been a while since I listened to the dvd audio commentary which Peter Shaffer and Milos Forman did for "Amadeus" - Shaffer even mentioned his Joseph wasn't intended as a portrait of Joseph II, but as a recognizable "type", which was all that was needed for the play. (As I said, I might misremember! Don't quote me on this!) Though whether or not he said it, I suspect that's what it amounts to. For the main plot to work, the Emperor in the play needs to be a well meaning but none too bright royal who can be easily manipulatied by Salieri and Orsini-Rosenberg. And he's only a minor character. Peter Shaffer was prepared to argue with Margaret Thatcher about his Mozart characterisation (she told him "Mozart wasn't like that, he would never have said those things!" whereupon he sent her an English edition of Mozart's letters, which she refused to acknowledge - and he did do research for the play, but I wouldn't be surprised if said research consisted of reading Mozart (and Salieri, if available) biographies, and Mozart's letters, but nothing beyond that.