Cultivating the court and the nation in Gluck's La rencontre imprévue -- Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the didactic aesthetics of the national Singspiel -- Morality and Germanness in Die Zauberflöte -- Die Zauberflöte and subversive morality in suburban operas -- The politics of morality at the court theater in the late 1790s -- How German is Fidelio? Didacticism in Beethovenian operas.