Harmonizing the Nation: Margaret Fuller and the Music of Antebellum America

Abstract

In August of 1846, Margaret Fuller – one of the most influential feminist intellectuals in American history – sailed from New York City to Europe prepared to continue her work as the lead columnist for theNew-York Tribune. As it was planned by Fuller and Horace Greeley – theTribune'seditor – while abroad, Fuller would work as an international correspondent and send to theTribuneletters of her travels that recorded her thoughts about Europe, which she did from late 1846 until late 1849, with her final piece appearing in the 6 January 1850 edition of the paper. In ‘Letter No. XI’ (1847) of Fuller's more than 30 European dispatches to theTribune, she recounted for her readers several of the operas that she attended while in Paris. After first reviewingRobert le Diable, Guillaume Tell, L'Elisire d'Amore and Semiramidein this 31 March letter, Fuller turned her attention to a performance of Mozart'sDon Giovanni. Fuller assessedDon Giovannidifferently from the other operas in her letter. Rather than highlight the merits of the singers or staging, she prefaced her review with an account of her decision to take ether in an attempt to alleviate the pain she had been suffering as a result of toothache. In some depth, Fuller described the pleasurable sensations that she had experienced because of the ether. As she noted, however, the treatment had not stopped her discomfort. This troubled her on more than one level. For one, she was in acute pain; but Fuller was also worried that her suffering might make it difficult for her to sit through the entirety ofDon Giovanni. Fuller had long wanted to attend this opera, so despite her concern she went. Her choice to go would delight her, for as Fuller wrote in her letter, onceDon Giovannibegan, ‘the music soothed the nerves’ of her toothache ‘at once’. But even more wonderful than this, she explained, was that, after hearing Mozart's music, the pain from her toothache ‘left [her] from that time’ on.