Abstract
This chapter develops the central themes of Dilbar Alieva's interpretation of Alfred Schűtz's sociological studies of opera, music and theatre. According to Schűtz, it is in Mozart's operas where we find the most perfect representation of the intersubjective relation which is the essence of human sociality.
However, as noted by Alieva, Schűtz's characterisation of Mozart can be extended to any accomplished work of the classical and romantic operatic tradition. As a way out of this difficulty, Alieva has proposed to treat the world of the operatic or dramatic scene as another finite province of meaning in Schűtz's sense of this term.
The uniqueness of Mozart's operas consists, according to her, in Mozart's extremely powerful ability to create, on the scene and by purely musical means, the illusion of everyday reality equally shared by the interpreters and the audience. The second part is an attempt to study sociologically an early 20th century modernist classic, Alban Berg's Wozzeck.
The confrontation between Wozzeck and Mozart's operas is focussed on the kind of sociality and relation of intersubjectivity that they represent using their respective musical, textual and dramatic languages. Berg's opera recreates an alienated social world which is full of examples of deformed sociality, but extremely hostile to any genuine You- and We-relation.
In conclusion, it is argued that the specificity of Mozart's (as well as some other) operas has not a single, but a double foundation: not only the ability to produce the powerful illusion of a shared intersubjective situation, but also the artistic intention to depict human sociality in its most idealized, positive and life-affirming form.