Così fan tutte, an opera of mimetic revelation / Isabel Díaz-Morlán.
| Author/creator | Díaz Morlán, Isabel, 1967- |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, ©2025. |
| Description | xiv, 134 pages : illustrations, music ; 23 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Studies in violence, mimesis, and culture Studies in violence, mimesis, and culture. ^A766053 |
| Contents | Preface -- Creation and reception of Così fan tutte -- Summary of the plot and structural relationships -- The literary sources of the libretto -- Starting point: the novelistic truth about the mechanisms of desire -- Mimetic revelation in Così fan tutte: an analysis of the music and the text -- Epilogue: revealing the truth of human emotions. |
| Abstract | The author reads the characters of Così fan tutte, an opera by Mozart and Da Ponte, through the lens of René Girard's theory of unconscious mimetic desire. The opera features couples who resemble those from classical literature, including Ovid's Collatinus and Lucretia, Cervantes's Anselmo and Camila, and Shakespeare's Leonatus and Imogen. The book explores the sources of the libretto, comparing them with each other and with the libretto itself to detect the themes that reveal the mechanism of mimetic desire. This offers the groundwork for the analysis of key movements of the opera, in which the combined action of words, dramatic action and, above all, music, show how Ferrando and Guglielmo as well as Fiordiligi and Dorabella fall into mimetic rivalry, an incitement to desire and hypocrisy, always within a méconnaissance that prevents them from recognizing what is happening to them until the truth is finally unmasked. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 2024057106 |
| ISBN | 9781611865448 paperback |
| ISBN | 1611865441 paperback |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | electronic book |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Item has been checked out | ML410.M9 D529 2025 | Due 04/29/2026 | Want This? |