The Singing Turk: Ottoman Power and Operatic Emotions on the European Stage from the Siege of Vienna to the Age of Napoleon

Contents

• Contents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstract
• The introduction sets the problem of operatic representation in the context of the Triplex Confinium, the adjacency of the Ottoman, Venetian, and Habsburg states in the eighteenth century, creating circumstances of war and hostility, but also coexistence
• 1The Captive Sultan: Operatic Transfigurations of the OttomanMenace after the Siege of Vienna chapter abstract
• This chapter suggests that, following the failed Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683, a lessening of fear and anxiety in Europe coincided with the emergence of operas about Turks as European entertainment-even as Ottoman territorial recession was articulated
• 2The Generous Turk: Captive Christians and Operatic Comedy in Paris chapter abstract
• This chapter considers Paris as an operatic perspective on the Ottoman empire, conditioned both by the relative remoteness of Paris from Istanbul and the longterm French solidarity with the Ottomans against the Habsburgs. The Paris fairs of the early eigh
• 3The Triumphant Sultana: Suleiman and His Operatic Harem chapter abstract
• This chapter presents the French musical comedy phenomenon of Charles-Simon Favart's The Three Sultanas (Les Trois Sultanes) of 1761, about Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and the favorite of his harem, Roxelana, as performed by Marie-Justine Favart. In t
• 4The Turkish Subjects of Gluck and Haydn: Comic Opera in War And Peace chapter abstract
• This chapter focuses on the 1760s and 1770s, especially in the Habsburg monarchy, as Gluck and Haydn began to compose comic operas on Turkish themes making use of Janissary percussion and alla turca style. Cultural interest in the Ottomans was conditioned
• 5Osmin in Vienna: Mozart's Abduction and the Centennial of the Ottoman Siege chapter abstract
• This chapter discusses the creation of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio in 1781 and 1782 in the context of the approaching centennial of the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1783. Mozart turned from a serious Turkish subject in the unfinished opera Zaide to
• 6"To Honor the Emperor": Pasha Selim and Emperor Joseph Ii in the Age of Enlightened Absolutism chapter abstract
• This chapter considers the political and emotional dynamics of Mozart's Sultan Soliman in Zaide, and then addresses the dramatic portrait of Pasha Selim in the Abduction as a very purposeful effort by the composer to bring himself to the attention of Habs
• 7The Ottoman Adventures of Rossini and Napoleon: Kaimacacchi and Missipipi at La Scala chapter abstract
• This chapter considers Napoleonic Europe as the context for the formation of the young Rossini as an opera composer, with particular attention to Napoleon's invasion of Ottoman Egypt, which coincided with the first Parisian production of Mozart's Abductio
• 8Pappataci and Kaimakan: Reflections in a Mediterranean Mirror chapter abstract
• This chapter focuses on Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, considered as a Venetian triumph for Rossini in 1813, employing Turkish themes that resonated with Venetian-Ottoman history. The libretto by Angelo Anelli had been composed earlier by Luigi Mosca. Ro
• 9An Ottoman Prince in the Romantic Imagination: The Libertine Adventures of Rossini's Turkish Traveler chapter abstract
• This chapter focuses on the Romantic conception of the singing Turk in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia. After centuries of European warfare with the Ottomans, Rossini in 1814, working with the librettist Felice Romani, conjured a traveling Turkish protagonis
• 10Maometto in Naples and Venice: The Operatic Charisma of the Conqueror chapter abstract
• This chapter focuses on Rossini's Maometto Secondo, presenting the Ottoman conqueror of Constantinople, Mehmed II, at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1820. The sultan appeared as a charismatic and romantic singing Turk, performed by Filippo Galli. Enthu
• 11Rossini's Siege of Paris: Ottoman Subjects in the French Restoration chapter abstract
• This chapter considers the flourishing of operas on Turkish themes in Restoration France, including Rossini's Turkish operas in Paris- especially as Rossini became director of the Theatre-Italien in the 1820s. His most important contribution to Turkishnes
• 12The Decline and Disappearance of the Singing Turk: Ottoman Reform, the Eastern Question, and the European Operatic Repertory chapter abstract
• This chapter considers European opera after Rossini and the waning presence of Turkish figures and themes in nineteenth-century opera. Ottoman reform under Mahmud II and Abdulmecid I (including the reform of Ottoman music, led by "Donizetti Pasha," the br
• Conclusion chapter abstract
• The conclusion argues that the singing Turk, beginning with the figure of Bajazet in captivity, participated in a discourse of absolute power and political abjection, exploring issues of sovereignty that were deeply relevant for European princes. The sing