Day 15 - Racism, Gender Bias, and Antique Musical Instruments

Dr. Marilyn Fischer

Our guest lecturer this morning was Dr. Marilyn Fischer from the University of Dayton.  Dr. Fischer is one of those great unassuming individuals with tons of knowledge and talent.  Even though I am convinced that she has more information stored in one ounce of gray matter than I have in my entire brain, she manages to make me feel like I've got worthwhile ideas. On a side note, my new friend, Kathy (Dr. Saranpa) has this very same ability, but she's not a guest lecturer so she doesn't get a whole blog.  It was Kathy and Marilyn that I had the honor of dining with last night.  The only way the evening could have been better is if my lovely wife were there too.  I'm digressing.

Artistic rendering of a Harem

Dr. Fischer's topic today Mozart's Sympathetic Orientalism?Gender and Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail.  The conversation was based on the idea that Die Entführung is a racially and gender biased opera.  I can tell you, it is.  Now whether or not that bias was malicious or merely a reflection on the dominant attitudes of the time, or perhaps a strange combination of both, I am not prepared nor willing to take a stand on.

In the opera, Osmin, the harem keeper, is portrayed as a caricature more than a character.  His name is a slight deviation of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman, who ruled from 1280 - 1324.  In Austria of the 18th century, and probably other places as well, anyone who was of the Muslim faith was considered a Turk, because according to them all Muslims are from Turkey.  This is perhaps the first example of racism.  Actually, to most of 18th century Europe when they referred to "The Orient", they were actually referring to the middle east.

The 18th century western concept of a Harem was inaccurate to say the least.  Then again, I think I could successfully argue that the 20th century concept of a harem is still inaccurate.  I found an interesting site that attempts to describe the Ottoman Harem, but I should warn you that some of the descriptions are graphic.

Dr. Fischer's discussion included several quotes from Edward Said's book Orientalism, and from Lady Mary Wortly Montagu, Turkish Letters.  The one that struck me as the most interesting was Lady Montagu's letter.  Lady Montagu had the opportunity to visit a harem in the early 18th century.  About the visit she wrote "The women were all naked, "but there was not the least wanton smile or immodest gesture amongst them. . . most of their skins shiningly white, only adorned by their beautiful hair. . . "In short, 'tis the women's coffee house, where all the news of the town is told, scandal invented etc;  They generally take this diversion once a week, and stay there at least four or five hours."  This description certainly conflicts with that of Die Entführung.  

The discussion became quite interesting with many voices throwing out comments and observations. One of the more interesting moments was the discussion of the Pasha Selim's decision to set the four westerns free rather than kill them or keep them as slaves.  This all occurs during the final Vaudeville in the opera.  The Turks, and remember that this is Mozart's and his librettist's concept of Turks, seem joyous at the Pasha's decision.  Multiple theories were thrown out to explain their change of heart, since it was seemingly so incongruous with the rest of their depiction.   I am partial to the theory that the Pasha wanted to get rid of these Westerners because they were a disruption to his way of life.  If he were to kill them it would most surely start a war with a foe that had already beaten him, so instead he does the "Enlightened" thing and is a better man to his enemies than they were to him.

Another one of the topics for conversation dealt with the quartet earlier in the opera when the four are trying to escape.  The males question the purity, and chastity of the females.  This is obviously a sexist moment since the women do not question the men about their fidelity.  This was one of those moments that as a somewhat enlightened male I knew I should just keep my mouth shut because no matter what I said I was going to offend someone.  And, no, I'm not going to say anything here either.  (Yeah, I'm a coward, so deal with it.)

After class we took a lunch break.  I decided to wander around for a little while and came across a church I hadn't seen before, the Minoritin-Kirche. In comparison to the other churches I've seen, this one was rather tame.  Antonio Salieri was a member of this church from 1780 until his death in 1825.   I enjoyed the tranquility of the sanctuary for a few minutes and then set off in search of lunch

Minoritin-Kirche

The view inside the palm house
from our table

Marinated veggies with goat cheese

I ran into a small contingency of other participants who were also looking for sustenance and they invited me to join them.  We ended up at the palm house of the Hofburg.  If you remember the pictures from last Saturday, I toured the palm house at Schloß Schönbrun.  At the Hofburg, part of the palm house has been turned into an atrium restaurant.  I did not take a picture of my lunch today because. . . . well, my German failed me and I ended up with something I didn't think I had ordered.  It was quite tasty, but not very pretty.  Before I could eat it I had to remove the head and tail, and the skin.  So rather than show you that, take a look at what was ordered by my classmate Joy.  She had a marinated vegetable and goat cheese salad.  It was beautiful and, I understand, Deeeeelish! 


Next stop!  The Musical Instrument Museum.  I don't even know where to begin, and I'm not really going to try.  I've posted all the pictures here.  In addition to the pictures, which are pretty bad because I wasn't allowed to use flash, I took several videos.  I'm just going to post them and let you take as much of the tour as you would like.  While there we did get to see Leopold Mozart's violin, Robert & Clara Schumann's piano, which incidentally was also Brahms's piano.  A little about that story can be found here.

There are more videos posted on my Facebook page.

This door leads to the
balcony where Hitler
spoke to Austria

Subway station near the Opera

The instrument museum is part of a larger museum that houses a number of sculptures and reproductions from ancient Rome.  There are several pictures in the photo album.  In addition this part of the Hofburg is where Adolf Hitler spoke to Austria.  It was eerie thinking that I was standing where Hitler stood.  Especially after seeing the holocaust memorial yesterday.

Typical Subway Seat

The Danube Canal

Subway near the Opera

 On the trek home I thought you might like to see what the Austrian subway looks like.  It isn't really a subway because it does come above ground, but most of the stations are below ground.  The one nearest my hotel is right next to the Danube canal.  I'm not sure I understand how the Danube canal is different from the Daube river.  Perhaps one of you would like to look that up

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