Mozart and the Meaning of Christmas

Mozart is one of the greatest composers and musical geniuses who ever lived. This is not controversial. What is, however, is Mozart’s Catholicism. Not that Mozart wasn’t Catholic. Rather, it is often embarrassing for our anti-Christian elite to acknowledge the debt Mozart had to his Catholic faith in composing his beautiful and inspiring works. To deny Mozart’s Catholicism, though, impoverishes his musical genius and beauty.

One way to describe Mozart’s music is that it is the music of love. Much of Mozart’s music deals with what scholar Jan Swafford has called “the reign of love.” Mozart’s concern for love was a result of his knowledge of theology: love is the alpha and omega, the beginning and end. Love is eternal. Love is our true nature. Everything else is ultimately fleeting and ephemeral.

In this sense, Mozart’s music is perfect for Advent. During Advent, Catholics remember the birth of Christ, the incarnation of Divine Love in the world, so as to reveal to a broken and fallen humanity the true meaning of love. Love, in Christ’s incarnation, is a uniting reality as Saint Thomas Aquinas described it. Love united heaven and earth, the immortal and mortal, in the person of Christ.

Advent is more than just the remembering of Christ’s incarnation. It is actually about his Second Coming. The Second Coming will be the in-gathering of the family of saints, everyone who is united in love with God through Christ, brought together in perfect happiness through the grace of love. Happiness is the promise of this love; there will be no more tears, no more hardship, no more fatigue.

Mozart’s music captures the essence of the Christian story of salvation.

We meet many characters, often broken and tired, enslaved and imprisoned, vengeful and jealous, trapped between a rock and a hard place. Yet as these characters dance and sing across the stage of existence, they are touched by love, freed by love, transformed by love.

In one of Mozart’s earliest operas, “Idomeneo,” Mozart set to music the story of Ilia, a daughter of Priam, who was brought to Crete after the end of the Trojan War. There, she falls in love with Prince Idamante, the son of King Idomeneo.

Priam and Idomeneo were enemies during the war. Ilia, as a princess of Troy, and Idamante, a prince of Crete, are divided by politics, war, and history. But their love for each other will transcend these ephemeral attachments.

Against their love stands Electra, a daughter of King Agamemnon, who is jealous of Ilia. She conspires to prevent the love of Ilia and Idamante from consummating itself upon news of Idomeneo’s apparent drowning.

To make a long and beautiful story short, Idomeneo is saved by Neptune and returned to Crete. The king must sacrifice the first person he sees. Returned to shore, he sees his own son. Trying to spare him from sacrifice, the king orders Idamante into exile. Idamante is heartbroken over this rejection by his own father, not knowing the truth that he is to be sacrificed.

Having offended Neptune by not sacrificing Idamante, a monster terrorizes the island. Idamante kills the monster in exile. Ilia, in the meantime, is terribly aggrieved and distraught over Idamante’s exile.

When Idamante returns in triumph of killing the monster, Idomeneo prepares to sacrifice his son to appease Neptune until Ilia intervenes to save him because she loves him. Neptune spares Crete further punishment because of the love that Ilia and Idamante share for each other on the condition that Idomeneo relinquish the throne.

The love of Ilia and Idamante restores peace and happiness to the kingdom. “Idomeneo” is an opera telling the Christian story of salvation through love despite its Homeric Greek setting. Love restores peace and brings happiness, not politics.

Another great opera telling the story of salvation through love in marriage is one of Mozart’s most famous operas: the “Marriage of Figaro.” The composer Johannes Brahms once, “each number in Figaro is a miracle.” Anyone who has listened to the opera knows why. The music is astonishingly beautiful, it is divine because it tells the divine story of salvation.

The operatic story tells the tale of how two servants, Figaro and Susanna, eventually marry and achieve eternal bliss through their marital love. Along the way to that happy marriage in love, they must overcome the schemes of Count Almaviva who attempts to seduce Susanna as he seeks revenge on Figaro alongside identity deception. The opera deals with a “day of madness” as love is threatened by the actions of Almaviva who is moved by petty politics and the spirit of vengeance to ruin true love.

Meanwhile, Susanna has dressed as the Countess Rosina, Count Almaviva’s wife. Figaro has fallen in love with the Countess (who is really Susanna). Count Almaviva, not knowing that Susanna is really his wife, continues his attempt to seduce her thus alerting Rosina to her husband’s attempted infidelity. Then, at the opera’s climax, the Count attempts to arrest Figaro for declaring his love for the Countess (who is still Susanna). This interplay of confusion and revenge leads to the near ruination of all lovers.

Forgiveness, as Mozart knew from his Catholicism, is what reconciles lovers to each other.

When all identities are restored and revealed, forgiveness is the only path forward to restore the love of all souls in the drama. Susanna forgives Figaro. Count Almaviva asks forgiveness from his wife for his deluded antics and conspiracies. Forgiveness brings harmony and permits the marriage of Figaro and Susanna. Peace and happiness through love reign at last.

What Mozart’s music tells is how love is the greatest reality that humans can participate in. It is more powerful than politics. It is more transformative than the promises of earthly power and prestige. Love unites former enemies. Love asks for forgiveness and permits reconciliation. Love unites and brings peace and happiness after a long and arduous journey, be it a day or many years, or an entire life.

Mozart’s music is the embodiment of the spirit of Christmas. Mozart’s music captures the meaning of Christmas: the coming of love and how love, and only love, brings peace and happiness to the turbulence of the soul. Mozart’s music, the beauty it conveys and the message that it sings, is impossible without the incarnation of Divine Love – Jesus Christ.

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