The Don Giovanni Moment: Essays on the Legacy of an Opera (Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231137540 ISBN 13: 9780231137546

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Mozart's Don Giovanni is an operatic masterpiece full of iconic and mythical tensions that still resonate today. The work redefines the terms of power, seduction, and morality, and the resulting conflict between the aesthetic and the ethical is deeply rooted in the Enlightenment and romanticism.

The Don Giovanni Moment is the first book to examine the aesthetic and moral legacy of Mozart's opera in the literature, philosophy, and culture of the nineteenth century. The prominent scholars in this collection address the opera's impact on the philosophical visions of Kierkegaard, Goethe, and Williams and its influence on the literary and dramatic works of Pushkin, Hoffmann, Mörike, Byron, Wagner, Strauss, and Shaw. Through a close and careful analysis of Don Giovanni's literary and philosophical reception and its many appropriations, rewritings, and retellings, these contributors treat the opera as a vantage point from which theory and philosophy can reconsider romanticism's central themes.

As lively and passionate as the opera itself, these essays continue the spirited debate over the meaning and character of Don Giovanni and its powerful legacy. Together they prove that Mozart's brilliant artistic achievement is as potent and relevant today as when it was first performed two centuries ago.

About this title

Book Description

The Don Giovanni Moment is the first book to examine the aesthetic and moral legacy of Mozart's masterpiece in the literature, philosophy, and culture of the nineteenth century. Scholars address Don Giovanni's impact on the philosophical visions of Kierkegaard, Goethe, and Williams and its influence on the literary and dramatic works of Pushkin, Hoffmann, Mörike, Byron, Wagner, Strauss, and Shaw. Through a close and careful analysis of the opera's literary and philosophical reception and its many appropriations, rewritings, and retellings, these contributors treat Don Giovanni as a vantage point from which theory and philosophy can reconsider romanticism's central themes. As lively and passionate as the opera itself, these essays are a spirited contribution to the debate over the meaning, character, and powerful legacy of this remarkable work of art.

About the Author

Lydia Goehr is professor of philosophy and aesthetics at Columbia University. She is the author of The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music; The Quest for Voice: Music, Politics, and the Limits of Philosophy, and Elective Affinities: Musical Essays on the History of Aesthetic Theory. Daniel Herwitz is the Mary Fair Croushore Professor of Humanities and director of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan. He is the author of The Star as Icon: Celebrity in the Age of Mass Consumption, and his short stories have appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0231137540
• ISBN 13: 9780231137546
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Goehr Lydia, Herwitz Daniel