The Republic of Love

Abstract

Abstract In The Republic of Love, philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum argues that opera engages in political dialogue with the other institutions of public life. Opera interrogates the underlying political culture: what human beings have to be like to sustain different political institutions. Opera’s central contribution, buttressed by the powers of the chorus and the nuances of musical expression, is its exploration of emotions in the structuring of public life, including the role of gender, rank, and class. Nussbaum argues that a distinct Mozartean strand of opera embodies the political project of the Enlightenment. These operas, starting with those of Mozart himself—The Marriage of Figaro, Idomeneo, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and La Clemenza di Tito—portray an egalitarian vision, not just of republican political institutions, but of emotion. This vision calls for the rejection of feudal hierarchy based on retributive anger and fear, and an embrace of love. This project has faced complications from the power-politics, tyranny, and oppression of the modern world, and so Mozart’s heirs considered how the Republic of Love can exist despite evil. Nussbaum traces the development of the Mozartean vision from Beethoven’s Fidelio and Verdi’s Don Carlos to Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Adams’s Nixon in China. Contrasting with this hopeful tradition, Nussbaum considers one antagonist, Richard Wagner, who envisioned a closed and unaccepting society, fearful of strangers, and with eyes forever cast backwards. Ending with hope, Nussbaum examines Verdi’s Falstaff and its joyful and humorous depiction of human frailty.

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