Opera: The Art of DyingOur modern narratives of science and technology can only go so far in teaching us about the death that we must all finally face. Can an act of the imagination, in the form of opera, take us the rest of the way? Might opera, an art form steeped in death, teach us how to die, as this provocative work suggests? In Opera: The Art of Dying a physician and a literary theorist bring together scientific and humanistic perspectives on the lessons on living and dying that this extravagant and seemingly artificial art imparts. Contrasting the experience of mortality in opera to that in tragedy, the Hutcheons find a more apt analogy in the medieval custom of contemplatio mortis--a dramatized exercise in imagining one's own death that prepared one for the inevitable end and helped one enjoy the life that remained. From the perspective of a contemporary audience, they explore concepts of mortality embodied in both the common and the more obscure operatic repertoire: the terror of death (in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites); the longing for death (in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde); preparation for the good death (in Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung); and suicide (in Puccini's Madama Butterfly). In works by Janacek, Ullmann, Berg, and Britten, among others, the Hutcheons examine how death is made to feel logical and even right morally, psychologically, and artistically--how, in the art of opera, we rehearse death in order to give life meaning. |
From inside the book
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... Tristan and Isolde ) ; preparation for the good death ( in Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung ) ; and suicide ( in Puccini's Madame Butterfly ) . In works by Janáček , Ullmann , Berg , and Britten , among others , the Hutcheons examine how ...
... Tristan und Isolde ix I 15 45 3 " All That Is , Ends " : Living while Dying in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen 73 4 Orphic Rituals of Bereavement 96 5 " Tis a Consummation Devoutly to Be Wish'd " : Staging Suicide 123 6 The Undead 146 ...
... Tristan und Isolde is " about " death in a different way from Il Trovatore , for instance . In a very real sense , death is the only ( musical and liter- ary ) subject matter of Wagner's music drama , its compulsively re- peated theme ...
... Tristan und Isolde becomes another version of Romeo and Juliet — a tragic tale of star - crossed lovers and their unnecessary deaths . To normalize Wagner's opera in this way is to misread its meaning : here death is not sad , bad , or ...
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Contents
The Contemplation of Death | 15 |
Eros and Thanatos Richard Wagners Tristan und Isolde | 45 |
All That Is Ends Living while Dying in Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen | 73 |
Orphic Rituals of Bereavement | 96 |
Tis a Consummation Devoutly to Be Wishd Staging Suicide | 123 |
The Undead | 146 |
Be Acquainted with Death Betimes | 184 |
Notes | 189 |
Acknowledgments | 232 |
Index | 233 |