Mark D Lew wrote:
[snip]
text, with an assertion that Schikaneder admirers wear like badge; it legitimizes them and vindicates them. Goethe declared, "It takes more education to appreciate the worth of this libretto than to deny it," There we have it. So defenders of the libretto usually begin, "No less a man than Goethe..." etc. Since Goethe, there has been a pious tradition of explaining away the opera's meaningless action by invoking its "hither meaning" (Goethe). Those with a "loftier consciousness" feel like "initiates" in the sense of the text; like Tamino and Pamina, they have passed the tests, while we uninitiated skeptics, unable to get beyond the nonsense, have to stick to the low level of Papageno, who would not exchange the tangible material world for a vague promise of an ideal world, sight unseen. >>
From this it would seem that Goethe might agree with David's assertion that began this discussion, that the story is not comprehensible without the benefit of outside information. Then again, that might just be Hildesheimer's interpretation (or mine!).
On the other hand, Goethe's remark may have been made by a consummate politician who happened to like the opera or for some other reason wished to defend Mozart in an indefensible position -- how much easier it is to simply state [paraphrase]"you have to be smarter to understand this than to misunderstand it, so by extension anybody who doesn't think this is any good isn't very smart, while we geniuses get all the inside jokes, nudge, nudge." Sort of discourages anybody who values their intellectual reputation from opening their mouth, doesn't it?
Goethe's remark in no way defends the opera, it simply shoots down anybody who would have the temerity to suggest the emperor has no clothes.
It is far easier to tell some detractor that they just don't understand and perhaps if they were smarter they would understand than it is to actually explain whatever it is that the detractors don't understand.
Great defense which seems to crop up more and more often these days in the world -- attack the detractor rather than defend your position.
-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
