Habe nun ach! Philosophie

A singing Socrates or a warbling Kant? From Monteverdi to Telemann and Paisiello to Mozart and Lortzing, the philosopher embodies the buff type of the unworldly and greedy, clever and blasé rhetorician. In addition, however, the thinking hero also develops as the idea bearer of the opera through to the real-life philosopher as a protagonist in modern music theater. Although not a performing musician, Rousseau managed to achieve a great deal in music. He played a leading role in the so-called Parisian Buffonist controversy over the supremacy of Italian or French opera. His singspiel Le Devin du village delighted the court of Versaille and temporarily pushed his rival Rameau's Tragedie lyrique into the background. Finally, his Dictionnaire de musique can be compared in its far-reaching significance to the educational novel Emile.

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