Adorno Goes to the Opera

"Of all the tasks awaiting us in the social interpretation of music", wrote T.W. Adorno, "that of Mozart would be the most difficult and the most urgent." Using writings by Adorno on opera as a point of departure, this course goes on to a critical examination of selected Italian, German and French operas between Fidelio and Wozzeck . Finally, it takes up Adorno's challenge by reconsidering some of Mozart's mature operas, from Figaro though The Magic Flute , in terms of later opera history and theory.