EURO ST 10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 75: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Bourgeois Tragedy, Aria
Document Summary
The queen of the night"s emotional plea to tamino to save her daughter. How is it supposed to affect tamino. The power of music and emotion to move people (for better or worse) The goal of enlightenment is to overcome deception brought on by others. She softens him up with her sadness and then moves him to action against the. It"s set up that pamina has been abducted by the evil king . Extremely popular in the second half of the 18th century in england and especially france and germany. Basic plot: good bourgeois girl gets seduced by bad prince. Typical themes were the execution of the bourgeois from matters of state, the willfulness and waste of aristocracy, the familial values of the bourgeoisie vs the evil ways of the aristocracy. The bourgeois audience is moved by these tragedies because they see their own plight under the aristocracy. The opera turns bourgeois anger into enlightened despotism.
