Earlier this year when I reviewed Dietrich von Hildebrand's MOZART BEETHOVEN SCHUBERT from the Hildebrand Project I mentioned that he did not include any of Mozart's opera seria (Lucio Silla, Idomeneo, or La Clemenza di Tito). He referenced Mozart's Freemasonry and highlighted Die Zauberflöte, admitting the Masonic influence on that work:
It is true that Mozart was a Freemason, for at that time Freemasonry was not yet seen as incompatible with the Catholic faith [sic*]. This humanitarian fraternization was so much in fashion that Mozart and his father Leopold Mozart were Freemasons. But both were above all devout Catholics. . . .
Mozart's only significant work in which one could find a relation to Freemasonry is "The Magic Flute." . . . (page 20)
They are not significant but Mozart did compose several Masonic themed works for specific lodge events in Vienna.
*Since Pope Clement XII in 1738 had issued In eminenti apostolatus specula, forbidding Catholics to join Masonic lodges, I think that von Hildebrand is wrong.
But Martha Nussbaum argues in The Republic of Love that Mozart's 1781 opera seria, Idomeneo, Rei di Creta shows the influence of that "humanitarian fraternization" particularly in the characters of Idamante, the son of Idomeneo, and Ilia, the Trojan princess whom Idamante loves and who loves Idamante in spite of herself. Although Mozart had not yet joined a lodge in Vienna when he wrote Idomeneo, she notes he was already attracted to the fellowship and spirit of Freemasonry.
She finds elements of the "Republic of Love" in this beautiful work, one I've watched on DVD or on-line and listened to several times on CD (the 1982 Metropolitan Opera production; the 1983 Glyndebourne production; the 1991 Philips CD, for example). The Glyndebourne production features a tenor Idamante--there's an earlier (1964) Glyndebourne production with Luciano Pavarotti in that role--he sang Idomeneo's part in the Met production when it premiered in that House. The Met has always had a mezzo-soprano Idamante in its casts, a practice Nussbaum believes appropriate.
2. Mozart and the Freemasons: Idomeneo and The Magic Flute
Mozart the Freemason
Mozart's Vienna
Mozart Joins a Lodge
Idomeneo: The Reign of Love
The Magic Flute: Noble Ideals, Imperfect People
In the section on Idomeneo, Nussbaum offers an interpretation of the opera that made sense to me, noting the opera seria format with its deus ex machina intervention to resolve the ethical dilemma of the story. In this case the vow King Idomeneo of Crete has made to Neptune if he survives a storm and shipwreck: he will offer as sacrifice the first person he sees on shore. The first person he sees is his son, Idamante. He tries to evade that horrible offering by sending his son away to no avail. Only the intervention of an unidentified "Voice" from the gods to remove him from the throne and bring both Idamante and Ilia, the Trojan princess, to rule Crete brings about the triumph of love at the end.
I mentioned that Nussbaum prefers the casting of a mezzo-soprano Idamante; she believes it highlights both the "close harmonies in the Ilia-Idamante duet [beginning with "S’io non moro a questi accenti,"] and "Idamante's gender-atypical gentleness" because "Idamante [like Cherubino] is a tender, loving type of male who eschews the common male competition for honor and domination." (p. 51). Even his monster-slaying heroics offstage only prepare him for offering himself as the sacrifice required for his country's sake.
Nussbaum dedicates most of the chapter on this opera seria to "tracing two threads that run through [Idomeneo], the ethical growth of Ilia, and the emotional and ethical character of Idamante." (p. 55) Ilia's growth is traced through her three arias as she responds to "Idamante's capacity for love" (p. 57). They are contrasted to Elettra's (aka Electra) desire for revenge and lack of development, and the "well-intentioned but ineffectual" Idomeneo . She concludes with the idea that at the end of the opera, Idamante and Ilia's Crete represents an "enlightened autocracy with a larger space for human choice than was previously available" rather like HRE Joseph II's regime of reform (p. 62).
Unless, of course, one was called to be a monk or a cloistered nun.
As for Die Zauberflote/The Magic Flute, upon which Mozart collaborated with Emanuel Schikaneder, Nussbaum's main point is that the opera depicts high ideals and tests of those high ideals which reveal both the successes and the failures of the characters to maintain them. She contends that those high "core ideals (reason, steadfastness, wisdom, brotherhood, and love) are those of the Masons (shared, of course, by many Enlightenment non-Masons)" (p. 63)
I think many non-Enlightenment, non-Masons have shared those ideals: they aren't exclusively Enlightenment-era core ideals or virtues.
Parallel to the section on Idomeneo, she emphasizes the ethical growth in Pamina, who leads Tamino through the completion of his initiation and shares the priestly robes in the Temple (like Ilia sharing the throne with Idamante). The two paragraphs on Papageno and Papagena and the three Genii (little boys) offer some rather ordinary insights--she notes how the Genii prevent two suicides (Pamina's and Papageno's) and, of course, that Papageno and Papagena provide most of the humor and the fun of the opera--and the bird catcher is not caught up in the Masonic initiation rites. If, as Nussbaum opines, "In general the opera's message is that one must follow one's own path and question claims to authority." (p. 69), Papageno has rejected those Masonic claims.
The musicologist David Joseph Buch has also rejected an overly Masonic interpretation. For example:
"Die Zauberflöte, Masonic Opera, and Other Fairy Tales" in Acta Musicologica, [Vol.] 76, [Fasc.] 2 (2004), pp. 193-219
Published by: International Musicological Society. Image credit (Public Domain): Front page of a bilingual vocal score
