Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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On the number 7 (as in 7x7 = 49, the number of scenes in Stone and entrances in Flute), all Van Den Berk says is that the number was "sacred". That is the same as what Etteilla says in the First Cahier. But there is also this, Papageno's first costume. The engraver, Ignaz Alberti, died in 1794, at the age of 34 (Van Den Berk p. 331).

Image


You can't tell in this poor reproduction, but there are seven feathers sticking out of Papageno's head; one of them doesn't stand out. That is the same number as in Giotto's Stultitia (Folly), which the engraver surely would have known from engravings. It is also the probably the same as in the PMB card (whatever it was called), which has 6 feathers visible (but one more hidden per Kaplan), as Lorredan pointed out recently at viewtopic.php?f=12&t=889&start=10#p12977. It is possible that the Mozarts, as big tarock fans, saw this card or one like it when they were playing for the aristocracy in Milan (Jan-March of 1770, per Hildesheimer p. 380). If Papageno were a tarot card, of course, he would be the Fool. According to Moakley, surely correctly, the seven feathers are the seven weeks of Lent. Hence the sacredness of 7.

In this illustration, his fingers point in two directions, his middle finger to the temple in the background, his index finger straight ahead. It seems to me that they make a Y, perhaps the famous "Pythagorean Y", i.e. the choice of Hercules (or Scipio, in his dream; Mozart actually wrote a youthful opera on this theme: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_sogno_di_Scipione).

According to Van Den Berk, the different fingers had significance in Masonry (pp. 330f):
The middle finger represented Saturn, and its phalanges represent: economics, the sciences and philosophy. We know that "philosophy" means "love of wisdom". So we can understand why this finger points at the "temple of wisdom", the place of the highest science, that of the realization of the opus magnum. The philosophers' stone lies hidden in the dark lead of Saturn. The "divine economy" consisted in extracting the gold from this lead. The index finger stood for Jupiter, and its phalanges represent: pleasure, luxury and religion. Jupiter is the planet of the day time, of light and things spiritual. It undoubtedly points out the location where the celebration of the sacred wedding takes place.
To this I would add that Saturn himself represented Wisdom, and had since at least the time of Ficino. Also, if (as I say) the fingers represent the choice of Hercules, then the index finger points the way to pleasure and luxury, as in that allegory. However it is sometimes by following pleasure that one goes toward wisdom, too, if done with the proper restraint, as Plato famously, or infamously, argued in the Phaedrus; that is also implied in Jupiter's association with religion. Van Den Berk does not document these associations; but if the part about Saturn and Jupiter is right, their associations are well grounded in ancient, medieval, and Renaissance tradition.

On the significance of the number 18, Van Den Berk gives the following references: Landon, Mozart's Last Year 1791, London 1988, p. 128 and p. 228 note 9; Rosenberg, W.A. Mozart. Der Verborgene Abgrund, Zurich 1976, p. 65; and something by a Grattan-Guinness, p. 219, not listed in Van Den Berk's bibliography. A great merit of Van Den Berk's book (in English translaton) is its awareness of the German-language literature. However that doesn't make it easy for me to find his references. In this case, the main one is in English, so probably not hard for me to get.

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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I have been trying to find out more about the influence of Wieland (who did the 22 Shakespeare translations), on The Magic Flute and its predecessor, The Philosopher's Stone, both written by Shickaneder. Flute only gets its title and the opening situation from Wieland's fairy tale "Lulu, oder die Zauberflote" (Van Den Berk p. 399) But Stone is a combination of two Wieland tales, "The Philosopher's Stone" and "Nadir and Nadine" (Van Den Berk p. 388). Since Stone is very similar in plot to Flute (and also in having 22 musical sections and 49 scenes), yes, it seems clear that Wieland was a strong indirect influence on Flute.

In addition, another singspiel with a similar plot, done the year before Stone in 1789, was Oberon, written by Giesecke, who probably also advised in the construction of the other two (Van Den Berk p. 379). Giesecke became a Mason in 1790, at a time when not many actually joined, and remained so all his life, by way of a lodge in the Austrian Netherlands after Masonry became illegal in Austria. This opera is based on Wieland's poem "Oberon". Here Oberon is the Sarastro character and Titania the Queen of the Night character. There are also the usual pairs of lovers. This in turn also loosely derives from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Van Den Berk could find no esoteric content in this singspiel, just some borrowing of both words and music (p. 383). Since it is a source for Flute, it is another link to Wieland.

Another Mozart-connected work with a similar plot and characters to Flute is his La Clemenza di Tito, which he wrote at the same time as Flute (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_clemenza_di_Tito); Tito is the Sarastro character. The librettist for Tito was Catarino Mazolla, who had come to Vienna in the spring of 1791 from Dresden, where Mozart met him in 1789 (Van Den Berk p. 491). Mazolla had in 1781 done the libretto for an earlier Masonic Egyptian-themed opera, Osiride (Osiris), by Johann Gtotlieb Naumann, which is again on the same good magician/bad magician (Pope/Devil) theme (Osiris and Seth, in Plutarch), with the Queen of the Night/Popess character here being the good Isis and the lovers Orus (Horus, which might be the young magician of the tarot) and Naumann's creation Aretea (Virtue) (Van Den Berk p. 488).

And of course there is Thamos a play on a similar theme to which Mozart had written the incidental music in 1773-1780 (adding pieces as it got revived, apparently). The only named character in the music, per Wikipedia, is Sethos, who gets the baritone part (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamos,_King_of_Egypt). He appears to be the Sarastro-character.

So I guess all these works need to be checked out for possible tarot associations. For me, Tito is easy enough. and perhaps Thamos (I have it on hold at the library). I see on Wikipedia that the evil character in Thamos gets struck by lightning toward the end. I think I can figure out a tarot correspondence for that.
Last edited by mikeh on 18 Oct 2012, 09:03, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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The German word for parrot is "Papagei" ...
"Papageno" should come from this. I looked for "Papageno" at book.google "before 1790" and found nothing. This seems to have been a "new word". So Papageno's feathers are Papageien-Federn. And '''Papagena" is naturally also a Papagei.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL7YF0Djruk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THsbW6bB ... creen&NR=1

He says "Pa-pa", and she repeats him ... as the Papageien do so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhIdTirLolM

"Papa" is the German word for "Daddy", so "Pa-pa-pa" likely also associates "making children" ... :-)

On this way I found a version of 1793. 1 Aufzug - 19 Auftritte. Zweiter Aufzug - 30 Auftritte. As we had it earlier.

http://books.google.de/books?id=-AQ7AAA ... edir_esc=y

.... :-) ... btw. this is the only official 5x14 deck ...

Image
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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I saw the remark, that the Zauberflöte would be the most played opera. I checked the web and found, that the Zauberflöte had an absolute reign in Germany 2003-2008 with some time 100% more shows than the second.
http://www.miz.org/static_de/themenport ... shagen.pdf
at page 10

This English language list has it at second place for 1998-2000.
http://iopera.www9.50megs.com/opera1.html

This North American list (for North America) has it at place 8 for 1981-2000
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Most_popular_operas
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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"Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots" ... more an Oratorium than an opera. Religious music (1767)

Opera Apollo and Hyazinthe (1767). Apollo is a god of divination. Hyazinthe dies, as usual.

Opera "Bastien and Bastienne" (1768, comic opera) contains a divination scene. A parody on the shepherd genre.
The truthsayer plays a dominant role.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastien_und_Bastienne

Mozart's first opera buffo "La finta semplice" (1768, Mozart 12 years old) had in the role of the lover a Hungarian captain Fracasso.
Belgian Tarock with its captain Fracasse might have been known. The story plays "near Cremona" ... Cremona was the birth place of Stradivari, and as the Mozarts had a musical orientation, the place had some attraction. Short after the opera was played in Salzburg (May 1769), the family started to make journeys in Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_finta_semplice

Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770 in Milan)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitridate,_re_di_Ponto
Last edited by Huck on 18 Oct 2012, 11:29, edited 1 time in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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An Interesting thread MikeH and Huck!
Here is a little trivia......
Pope Martin V (1417-1431) Kept Parrots at the Vatican- which was not unusual.
The Octaganal Courtyard built after the Popes came back from Avignon led to the Vatican Library and the Popes apartments back then, was called Cortile de Pappagallo or Courtyard of the Parrot and led to young priests/students been called Pappagallos, because they walked and repeated liturgy by rote. It had a double meaning- because gallo meant a cock and went on to be a term for Lovebirds or young men who recited poetry- I think a similiar thing would be called a Popinjay or colourful dandy after the German word for Parrot that Huck mentioned.
~Lorredan
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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"Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots" ... more an Oratorium than an opera. Religious music (1767)

Opera Apollo and Hyazinthe (1767). Apollo is a god of divination. Hyazinthe dies, as usual.

Opera "Bastien and Bastienne" (1768, comic opera) contains a divination scene. A parody on the shepherd genre.
The truthsayer plays a dominant role.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastien_und_Bastienne
Mozart's first opera buffo "La finta semplice" (1768, Mozart 12 years old) had in the role of the lover a Hungarian captain Fracasso.
Belgian Tarock with its captain Fracasse might have been known. The story plays "near Cremona" ... Cremona was the birth place of Stradivari, and as the Mozarts had a musical orientation, the place had some attraction. Short after the opera was played in Salzburg (May 1769), the family started to make journeys in Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_finta_semplice
Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770 in Milan)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitridate,_re_di_Ponto

Then comes something of interest: Mozart composes within 3 weeks something for the marriage of Maria Theresia's son and an 15-year-old Este daughter. "Ascanio in Alba" (1771) So he has arrived at the heart of the Tarocchi myths. (1771) Austrian Tarock meets Italian Tarocchi. Mozart is 15.

Well, in all this Mozart's looks, as if he has nothing to do with the content. Mozart is young and he just makes the music. But naturally from all his experiences and commissions he builds his own ideas.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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Huck wrote,
The German word for parrot is "Papagei" ...
"Papageno" should come from this. I looked for "Papageno" at book.google "before 1790" and found nothing. This seems to have been a "new word". So Papageno's feathers are Papageien-Federn. And '''Papagena" is naturally also a Papagei.
Yes, to be sure. But I want to make sure I understand why you are saying this. I take it as more confirmation that Papageno represents the Fool, because parrots chatter without understanding. Is that what you are wanting to say?

Huck wrote
.... :-) ... btw. this is the only official 5x14 deck ...
Is the image that follows from a tarot deck? What date and place?

Lorredan wrote
Mozart's first opera buffo "La finta semplice" (1768, Mozart 12 years old) had in the role of the lover a Hungarian captain Fracasso.
Belgian Tarock with its captain Fracasse might have been known. The story plays "near Cremona" ... Cremona was the birth place of Stradivari, and as the Mozarts had a musical orientation, the place had some attraction. Short after the opera was played in Salzburg (May 1769), the family started to make journeys in Italy.
Good information. Hildesheimer writes, in the "Chronology" appendix, in the year 1770
January 19. Departure from Mantua. Via Bozzolo, Cremona to Milan.
This is a year and a half after Mozart wrote La finta semplice: two reasons for stopping in Cremona. They spend 2 months in Milan, January to March of 1770. They also spend another 2-3 months in Milan on the way back, Oct.-Feb (some of this time in Turin);on he premiers his opera seria Mitridate, Re di Ponto. Then Milan- Venice via Verona, Vicenza, and Padua, Feb. 4- Feb. 11. Enough time to visit Giotto's chapel in Padua if they wanted to. In Venice til March 12, then via Padua to Verona again and back to Salzburg, arriving March 28.

In August of 1771 they go their second trip to Italy, arriving Milan Aug. 21. Then we have, still in Milan:
August, September [1771]. Work on the opera (Serenata teatrale in due atti) Ascanio in Alba, k. 111.
Oxtober 17. Premiere of Asconio in Alba in Milan, in the presence of the Archduke Ferdinand on the celebration of his marriage.
They leave Milan on December 5, 1771, arriving Salzburg Dec. 15. (And for some reason Hideshemer notes Haydn's "Sun" quartets written around then.) The next entry, 1772, no month given, is that he begins work on the opera Il sogno di Scipione, a work that for me relates to the "choice of Hercules" interpretation of the Lover card. This opera premiers at the beginning of May, in Salzburg, in honor of Hieronymus Count Colloredo, the new Prince Archbishop.

Then comes the third Italian journey, arriving Milan Nov. 4, 1772. On Dec. 26 the opera seria Lucio Silla premiers there. They stay until March 4, 1773. The Milan-Salzburg route is the usual one, via Verona and the Brenner Pass. They don't go any further than Milan on either the second or the third journey.

In an earlier post, concerning the numerological significance of the number 18 for Mozart, I gave information from the wrong footnote. It should have been: A. Rosenberg, W.A. Mozart. Der verborgene Abgrund, Zurich 1976, p. 65, and H. Schuler, "Zur Zahlensymbolik der 'Zauberflote'", Essen, Ruhr: Die Ateliers des A.A.S.R., 1991, p. 24. Neither of these works is available to me, even by interlibrary loan.

Added later: I notice also that in 1770 the young Mozart and his father spent a few months in and around Bologna, staying August 10-October 1 at the country estate of Field Marshal Pallavicini. He began to compose Mitridate, Re di Ponto there. In October he had daily instruction with Padre Martini, "the most noted contrapuntist of his time", leaving Oct. 13. I mention this because it is not long after the evidence of tarot cartomancy there, and Mozart proved later to be interested in divination. The debt-collectors' inventory of his library after his death included a book on a common type of divination, the name for which I don't recall. Unfortunately Van Den Berk's book has no index, but I just read about it. One put dots on paper without counting, then counted them and divided the total by 12. The number of the remainder, from 1 to 12, was then looked up in the book.

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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mikeh wrote: Yes, to be sure. But I want to make sure I understand why you are saying this. I take it as more confirmation that Papageno represents the Fool, because parrots chatter without understanding. Is that what you are wanting to say?
Well, I don't know, if the suspicions to Tarot is true (we just research it and gather arguments, if there is something), but the Papageno = Papagei relation is rather obvious in Germany, but not so natural in English language.

Huck wrote
.... :-) ... btw. this is the only official 5x14 deck ...
Is the image that follows from a tarot deck? What date and place?
Round Master PW deck in c. 1500. 5 suits (3 flowers for Germany-France-Spain, Parrots for Africa, Hares for the Ottomans), in each suit 14 cards. 2 additional cards, one with "Viva Colonia" heraldic, the other with a nude woman grabbed by death.
http://koeln-tarot.trionfi.com/
... a German site of us ...
Master PW had worked at the emperor court in Innsbruck and then illustrated scenes from the war between Habsburg and Switzerland 1499. This means, that he likely had contact to Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian, empress since 1494. Bianca Maria was famous for her playing card interests. Milan was lost to France 1499/1500 and then Bianca Maria became uninteresting for the court.
Master PW returned to Cologne. Later we have it, that Parrots as suits were used by Vigil Solis and as such added to Catelin Geofroy deck 1557. Then the parrots returned in the Johannes Bussemecher deck 1591.
http://koeln-tarot.trionfi.com/05/

In the time, when the Zauberflöte became famous, Cologne was taken by the French (October 1794) and stayed in their hands till 1814. This should have placed German eyes on Cologne for a longer time as a national symbol. Cologne suffered from it.
Irony of history has it, that Cologne became after Napoleon famous for carnival. and some parrots escaped from the zoological garden and so we have wild parrots in Cologne since the 1970s, which are doing well here, as the region is relative warm. Meanwhile the parrots have extended as far as Heidelberg.
They live in big groups and are very noisy. Other birds don't have really a chance, they can't be attacked. Like a drunken band of carnivalists ... :-)

Image

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halsbandsittich

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCEXNdgR ... re=related
...
Added later: I notice also that in 1770 the young Mozart and his father spent a few months in and around Bologna, staying August 10-October 1 at the country estate of Field Marshal Pallavicini. He began to compose Mitridate, Re di Ponto there. In October he had daily instruction with Padre Martini, "the most noted contrapuntist of his time", leaving Oct. 13. I mention this because it is not long after the evidence of tarot cartomancy there, and Mozart proved later to be interested in divination. The debt-collectors' inventory of his library after his death included a book on a common type of divination, the name for which I don't recall. Unfortunately Van Den Berk's book has no index, but I just read about it. One put dots on paper without counting, then counted them and divided the total by 12. The number of the remainder, from 1 to 12, was then looked up in the book.
Generally one has to realize, that Milan had been Austria a longer time (peace of Rastatt 1713) ... till the time of Napoleon. And after Napoleon again for some time till 1859.

Image

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Rastatt
And before Milan had been Spanish-Habsburg since 1535. This makes, that the 324 years "after the Sforzas" saw c. 90% control of Habsburg in Milan. Mozart in Milan isn't so strange under these conditions.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Mozart, Tarot, Isis, and Ercole d'Este

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Thanks for the clarifications, Huck.

I have been researching Mozart's early operas. His biographers all agree that the characters of La Finta Semplice are based on Commedia dell'Arte. Mozart's Fracasso is based on Il Capitano, one of whose many names in Commedia dell'Arte was Fracasso (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Capitano). So there isn't really a connection between Mozart and the Belgian tarot here: both uses of "Fracasso" (Italian for "skirmish" or "big noise", Wikipedia says) come from Commedia dell'Arte.

Of more interest is who the operas were for, as Huck notes. I am also counting musical numbers per opera and per act, to see if there are any patterns. Finta Semplice was intended as a show-piece for the 12 year old's genius, not for anyone in particular. It stirred up controversy and was never performed, except for excerpts and individual arias (this from Mann, The Operas from Mozart). It has 11 musical sections in Act 1 (not counting the overture, which Mozart didn't give a number to), 11 in Act 2, and 5 in Act 3.

His next opera, Bastien und Bastienne was commissioned by Anton Mesmer, the medical hypnotist, and first performed at his house in Vienna. It has 16 musical sections not counting the overture.

Next is Mitridate, Re di Ponto. It was dedicated to the Duke of Modena, Ercole III d'Este, and apparently paid for by Count Karl Joseph Firmian, Governor General of Lombardy, whose brother was Inspector of Court Music in Salzburg and uncle had been Archbishop of Salzburg. The opera is based on Greco-Roman history as described by Plutarch. It has 25 pieces plus overture.

The next is La Betulia Liberata. This seems to have been the result of Mozart's visit to Padua. He was to write an oratorio on the theme of Judith and Holofernes, commissioned by Don Giuseppe Ximenes, Prince of Aragon (whose family had settled in Italy generations before). Betulia seems to have been the result, but it probably wasn't performed in Padua, perhaps because its style was too modern and "German", considered deficient in counterpoint (Mann p. 95). There is some uncertainty, as a Betulia was performed in Padua at the right time, but probably not Mozart's. The Padua program lists an Italian composer for the piece--but it is crossed out, to add to the confusion. It was definitely performed in Salzburg. It has 16 vocal numbers.

Then comes Asconio in Alba, for the occasion of the marriage of Archduke Ferdinand, third son of the Emperor Franz I and the Empress Maria Theresa, with the Princess Maria Ricciarda Beatrice d'Este, only daughter of the Prince of Modena. Huck has noted the connection to the famous family of tarot lore. The opera's story itself makes this connection. It is about the love between a son of Aeneas, Ascanio, and a nymph descended from Hercules, Silvia. Mann comments:
It was important that Silvia should descend from Hercules since the Princess Maria Beatrice's father was Duke Hercules (Ercole) III of Modena, just as Venus, grandmother of Ascanius, would be seen as an allegorical parallel to the Empress Maria Theresa.
Venus gets a striking entrance, bellowing out her aria as she descends from the rafters in her chariot. Mann doesn't mention that even earlier, there had been another Ascanio, a Sforza; his brother, the future Duke of Milan, married another Beatrice d'Este, daughter of another Ercole d'Este Duke of Modena (and Ferrara, too, then). That Beatrice was an avid card-player. (For the record, the same Ascanio had a half-brother who married another Beatrice d'Este, half-sister of the same Ercole.) Disappointingly to me, there are 33 musical numbers plus overture; but the longest, most difficult, and best until Abduction from the Seraglio and The Magic Flute (per Mann) is tnumber 21. It had to be shortened at the premiere, for the sake of the tenor.

Then comes Dream of Scipio, short at only 12 musical numbers plus overture, Salzburg. Scipio's dream here is the choice between Constancy and Fortune. Constancy wins, of course; Fortune tends to lose her charms with age.

The last from Mozart's Italian journeys is Lucio Silla, a historical drama follow-up in Milan to Mitridate, again commissioned in Milan by Count Firmian. It is about the Roman dictator Sulla and apparently was performed 26 times while the 16 year old Mozart was in Milan. It has 23 musical numbers plus overture, of which Mann says the 21st and 22nd are the best.

I also checked on La Clemenza di Tito, which Mozart wrote at the same time as Magic Flute. It has 26 musical numbers. (Shickaneder wasn't the librettist or producer, of course.) It was commissioned by the Bohemian Estates on the occasion of their new King, Emperor Leopold II of Austria.