{"id":4677,"date":"2026-04-21T04:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=4677"},"modified":"2026-04-21T04:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:31:17","slug":"reading-martha-nussbaums-the-republic-of-love-opera-political-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/04\/reading-martha-nussbaums-the-republic-of-love-opera-political-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Martha Nussbaum’s The Republic of Love: Opera & Political Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always been skeptical of the idea that simply engaging with a lot of narrative fiction will make people more ethical, or more generally empathetic (which is not the same thing), or will increase the depth of their political understanding. There isn\u2019t any evidence for it, and too many counter-examples of well-read jerks and political cranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But don\u2019t the stories told in novels, films, plays and operas have moral and political content? Yes, the author will bring some<\/em> sort of moral framework to what they compose, and assume that the audience will be for the most part on the same page. I am what Noel Carroll would call a \u201cmoderate moralist<\/a>\u201d, where usually I can appreciate the art in a work without thinking about its moral assumptions, unless<\/em> the author has brought forward a point of view so contrary to what I believe that it negatively affects my ability to appreciate the aesthetic value of the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about works that challenge my ethical or political assumptions, but in a good<\/em> way? Works where the author, without simply writing a polemic, can open my eyes to a different way of thinking about human relationships? Martha Nussbaum, in previous works like Love\u2019s Knowledge<\/a><\/em> and Poetic Justice<\/a><\/em>, has argued that yes, some<\/em> fictional works can<\/em> increase our understanding in ways that an analytic argument might fail. In a 1998 essay responding to a critique of any attempt to conflate morals and art by Richard Posner, she wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Love\u2019s Knowledge<\/em>, where my primary concern is with moral philosophy, and with the claim that moral philosophy needs certain carefully selected works of narrative literature in order to pursue its own tasks in a complete way; and Poetic Justice<\/em>, where my concern is with the conduct of public deliberations in democracy, and where my claim is that literature of a carefully specified sort can offer valuable assistance to such deliberations by both cultivating and reinforcing valuable moral abilities. In neither work do I make any general claims about \u201cliterature\u201d as such; indeed, I explicitly eschew such claims in both works, and I insist that my argument is confined to a narrow group of pre-selected works, all of them novels, and some of which (the novels of James and Proust, for example) are frankly very critical of their predecessors and contemporaries in the genre. I also make it very clear that even in terms of the general line of inquiry I map out, I have chosen to focus rather narrowly on certain questions about how to live, and to leave other equally interesting questions to one side. \u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With the condition that she wants to consider selected<\/em> works, I am on board. The late Earl Winkler, who I had for my undergraduate course in Ethics at UBC, used this technique, and to this day it remains about the most memorable class I ever took.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so to Nussbaum\u2019s latest book: what can opera<\/em> contribute to political thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hero of the book is Mozart, and the first half of Republic of Love<\/a><\/em> is devoted to a close listening to his operas. Note listening<\/em>: Mozart himself said that with his operas the music comes before all else, and Nussbaum argues we cannot possibly understand the underlying moral vision of his (or anyone\u2019s) operas simply through reading the librettos (in some cases, say Cos\u00ec fan Tutte<\/em>, it would be quite misleading). Nussbaum calls Mozart one of the greatest philosophers of the Enlightenment, a bold claim. How does he earn this title? The late eighteenth century saw revolutionary change in how people saw their relationships to one another and to the state. What is expressed through Mozart\u2019s operas (sometimes with difficulty) is the idea that this new world of libert\u00e9, \u00e9galit\u00e9, fraternit\u00e9<\/em> needed men to discard past notions, or obsessions, with hierarchy, honor and revenge, possession and power, and through a change of heart come to love one another as we are, to show mercy and compassion, to listen to the women in their lives, to accept our imperfections, to be able to laugh at ourselves (Bernard Williams<\/a> said that we should take Mozart\u2019s comedy seriously<\/em>; to be able to see oneself as slightly ridiculous is the beginning of moral thinking, and is vital to a happy romantic relationship. See also Verdi\u2019s Falstaff<\/em>, discussed by Nussbaum later in the book).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Le<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

[Isabel Leonard as Cherubino, a character seen by Nussbaum as a very nice expression of Mozart\u2019s vision of a new sort of man, in Glyndebourne’s (2012) Le Nozze Di Figaro<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of Nussbaum\u2019s own politics, while there is much of a standard liberal progressivism in her outlook, I was most reminded during her discussion of Mozart\u2019s politics of her work on the concept of capabilities<\/em> in thinking about well-being and equality (though she herself does not use the term directly here). This is the idea (which she developed together with Amartya Sen, though I think Nussbaum did more to try to work through the practical implications – I used to have my students read her essay in Women and Human Development<\/a><\/em>) that while it is important to ensure people all have a basic income and the necessities of life, and constitutional protections of their rights, we also need to think deeply about what sort of lives people are capable of leading on a day to day basis: being able to take part in the ordinary aspects of society, everyone being treated as worthy of equal respect and dignity, no one living as an exile, whether outside of society or within. These are aspects of welfare that go beyond what the state alone can provide – they require an understanding amongst citizens regarding how we ought to treat one another (in The Republic of Love<\/em> see especially Nussbaum\u2019s analysis of Benjamin Britten\u2019s Peter Grimes<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half of the book takes various post-Mozart operas, from Beethoven\u2019s Fidelio<\/em> to the contemporary operas Nixon in China<\/em> and Dead Man Walking<\/em> to illustrate how these new ideas of love and mercy continued to shape the art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anti-Mozart here is Wagner, and she chooses Die Meistersinger<\/em> as the representative work of everything that is evil in an exclusionary nationalism. She includes a story about its Prelude being performed at a ceremony she attended at The New School in New York, and its complete inappropriateness given the history of that institution (at my own university the Prelude, performed by our student orchestra, was the highlight of a ceremony celebrating the university\u2019s bicentennial, and, to be honest, it is<\/em> an amazingly invigorating piece).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Wagner is the arch-enemy of Mozart\u2019s Republic of Love not because he hates Jews, though he certainly does hate them. He is Mozart\u2019s arch-enemy because he hates craziness, doubt, playfulness, difference, and reciprocity, aspects that the Republic of Love cherishes and cannot do without.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I enjoyed this book. Those with much deeper knowledge of opera than I have might have some disagreements with her analysis – her unrelenting disparagement of Wagner will certainly generate criticism. \u201cI think Tristan<\/em> is a tedious opera and that the view of love in it – all unsatisfied longing and no reciprocity – is adolescent and boring\u201d are fightin\u2019 words. But then it wouldn\u2019t be a very interesting book if it left nothing else to say. For a layperson like myself, who enjoys opera but only rarely gets a chance to attend (though the productions at our university are excellent), it gave a new perspective, and this is a book I will re-read if one of the operas she discusses has an upcoming performance. She also made me really hoping for a chance to see some operas I\u2019ve never seen before – if Verdi\u2019s Don Carlos<\/em> or Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s Jen\u016ffa<\/em> is being performed nearby, I will be there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Nussbaum does fine work here, without going on about it, in dispelling the notion that opera is, and can only ever be, \u201celite.\u201d Her book, and the operas she discusses, are available to anyone willing to take the time. And the great operas do not need to be \u201creimagined\u201d, or have the villain dressed in a blue suit with a white shirt and a solid red tie, to be \u201crelevant\u201d to an audience in 2026. There\u2019s plenty in Mozart that is relevant as it stands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-posted at https:\/\/michaelrushton.substack.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve always been skeptical of the idea that simply engaging with a lot of narrative fiction will make people more ethical, or more generally empathetic (which is not the same thing), or will increase the depth of their political understanding. There isn\u2019t any evidence for it, and too many counter-examples of well-read jerks and political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-1dr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1548,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/09\/this-is-not-censorship\/","url_meta":{"origin":4677,"position":0},"title":"This is not censorship (updated, again)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"September 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times reports on authors forming a group to back publisher Hachette in its quest to have Amazon.com charge consumers higher prices for books. A literary agent is quoted: \u201cIt\u2019s very clear to me, and to those I represent, that what Amazon is doing is very detrimental to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"this is censored","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/dream-of-ding-village.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2215,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2017\/05\/can-art-corrupt-our-politics\/","url_meta":{"origin":4677,"position":1},"title":"Can art corrupt our politics?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"At Time magazine, Alex Melamid suggests it can, that the infantilism found in (some) works of modern art has led us, in the end, to an infantile president of the United States: Whatever the intelligentsia nurtures and celebrates in our galleries and academic journals is bound to flow eventually into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"what will this lead to?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Koons-231x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4640,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/01\/equality-the-arts-and-the-problem-of-expensive-tastes\/","url_meta":{"origin":4677,"position":2},"title":"Equality, the arts, and the problem of expensive tastes","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"January 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday\u00a0Rebecca Lowe\u00a0mentioned in a note how much she enjoys reading the philosopher G.A. Cohen. I do too, and it reminded me of his part in an interesting, and I don\u2019t think ever resolved, debate in arts policy. I\u2019ll get to Cohen later, but first some background. Most people (I know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-3.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-3.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3736,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/02\/art-in-turbulent-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":4677,"position":3},"title":"Art in Turbulent Times","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently artsjournal.com shared a lengthy piece by composer and musician Jonathan Blumhofer, on the arts in times of political unrest. Although you will see I disagree with its message, it is a thoughtful and considered piece. After a discussion of the complex, to say the least, relationship between conductor Wilhelm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-6.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-6.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-6.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-6.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-6.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-6.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3653,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/12\/art-politics-trump\/","url_meta":{"origin":4677,"position":4},"title":"Art, Politics, Trump","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A favourite old book of mine from my childhood is Kenneth Clark\u2019s\u00a0Civilisation, which goes along with his television series. It is old-school history of western civilisation, observant and wise. In his first chapter he travels to those monasteries around Ireland and Great Britain - Skellig Michael, Iona, Lindisfarne (pictured above)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3005,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/04\/why-public-funding-for-the-arts-a-personal-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":4677,"position":5},"title":"Why Public Funding for the Arts: A Personal View","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u00a0wrote a book\u00a0looking at how different ways of moral and political theorizing drew different conclusions regarding whether the state should, or should not, subsidize the arts. At the very end of the book I give something of a personal view. There is a review circulating that is terribly confused about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4679,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4677\/revisions\/4679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}