Almaviva

Summary

Dominique Pagani mainly discusses Count Almaviva in connection with The Marriage of Figaro, as a figure of the feudal droit de seigneur: the lord who claims the right to sleep with Susanna before Figaro does12. In the Musicosophie sessions devoted to Mozart, he specifies that the Count delays Susanna's wedding in order to exercise this right and believes he has won her in the duettino3, but that he is ultimately ridiculed and fails to impose it4. He also treats the Count as a type of the aristocratic libertine, whom he links to Sade5 and places sometimes in The Marriage of Figaro, sometimes in The Barber of Seville. In 2023, discussing Clouscard, he describes him as a Spanish nobleman who transgresses morality as he pleases6. On the musical level, he also uses him as an example of recitative as opposed to aria7.

1. 1Money, work, freedom3 Aug 2019 · 33:34
2. 2#8 Happiness and unhappiness in music11 Jan 2021 · 40:05
3. 3#14 Mozart once more7 Feb 2021 · 1:41:58
4. 4#13 Mozart restored2 Feb 2021 · 1:05:26
5. 5At the bistro (part 1)18 Jun 2016 · 21:53
6. 6Beware of misreadings! Clouscard and the ideology of desire, in homage to Le Précepteur14 Jan 2023 · 41:15
7. 7At the bistro (part 1)18 Jun 2016 · 1:00:26

Summary produced automatically from 11 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.