Goethe, Mozart, and the Illuminati: Mayr's Verter (Werther) and the Secret Revolution in Poschiavo
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This is the official English edition of an article originally published in Italian in Quaderni Grigionitaliani (see DOI below). Copyright remains with the authors (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International). The article is freely available for non-commercial use in research, teaching, and private study. For permission to use images or content for commercial purposes or systematic archiving, please contact the authors directly. For citation, please refer either to the official Italian publication (Quaderni Grigionitaliani, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-52920) or to this English Zenodo edition (DOI: [this Zenodo record]), as appropriate.This English version includes additional notes and updates not found in the original Italian article. Abstract:This article introduces the discovery of a previously unknown comic opera, Verter (Werther) by Johann Simon Mayr, composed in the revolutionary milieu of late eighteenth-century Poschiavo. Drawing on the first Italian translation of Goethe’s Werther—printed at the local Illuminati press run by Baron De Bassus—and weaving in musical themes from Mozart’s Magic Flute, this farsa offers unique insight into the cultural networks and Illuminati activity that shaped the intellectual landscape of Northern Italy on the eve of the French Revolution. The study examines the interwoven trajectories of De Bassus, Mayr, Goethe, and Mozart, all linked through the Bavarian Illuminati, and reconstructs the social, political, and artistic context from which the opera emerged.In addition, this work proposes a new interpretative key to Mozart’s Magic Flute, situating it within the Illuminati context and its broader revolutionary symbolism.
Authors: Bianchini, Luca, Trombetta, Anna
Institution: University of Pavia
Language: English
Subfield: Music
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6968288568
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: