Mozart Argues Opera With the Court, Explained：fed to the teeth

What's really going on

The argument is about who gets to define serious art. The court's case is measured and condescending: Mozart's talent is granted, his judgment is not, and Figaro is dismissed as a vulgar farce even after the politics are removed. Mozart's reply is the real provocation - he tells them to stop writing about gods and legends and to put ordinary people on stage, and he loses his temper doing it. "People so lofty, they sound as if they shit marble!" is the line that turns an aesthetic debate into an offense. His apology is sincere but does not retreat from the point, and the Emperor's verdict, "you do not persuade," is the court's way of saying that being right is not the same as winning. What he wants next, to perform the opening, is a practical answer to a social defeat.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Fed to the teeth is a strong British way to say fed up.
• Ennoble means to raise someone morally.
• Even with concedes a point before criticising.
• The crude joke is his honesty and his mistake.

発音のポイント

• as if they — As if they blends into one run.
• not persuade — The t in not is often dropped before persuade.