Opera's Second Death

[Dave Monroe]

Keep in mind, that's just the copy on the back cover
of the book ...

--- The Great Quail <quail at libyrinth.com> wrote:
> >"Operas are about the meaning of love and life, and
> >also very much about the meaning of death. Opera as
> >a form, however, might even be dead itself. The
last
> >great operas are said to be those written around
> 1900."
> 
> Oh, hogwash. Opera as a musical form has changed
> along with classical music itself, and this century
> is filled with "great operas" ...

... which I now DON'T have at hand, so I can't
directly address this on Zizek and Dolar's behalf, but
I will note that Z&D do indeed do NOT get much past
Wagner (although they do seem to address contemporary
stagings of Tristan and Isolde, which I thought might
be of particular interest here) ...  

However, given that Zizek, in particular (Dolar I'm
familiar with only via an essay or so on the voice, on
vocality), has written extensively on the likes of,
say, David Lynch films, I think it safe to say he's
hardly the nostalgically sniffy highbrow type.  On the
other hand, given the way he kicks around Kant, Hegel,
Heidegger, et al., he's hardly one to shy away from
difficulty, either ... 

Did give the coupla sections on Die Zauberflote the
once-over, but ... well, I kinda like to actually read
the books before I burn 'em, is all ...

In the meantime, strangely enough, the only operas I
actually own copies of (and thus the only ones I've
really much listened to) are Mozart's Magic Flute,
Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, Schoenberg's Erwartung
and Adams' Nixon in China.  Again, I'm not really what
you'd call an opera fan, I'm interested in the
literature largely for other reasons (music, vocality,
theatricality, cultural history, Warner Brothers
cartoons, what have you), and I thought maybe the
whole love'n'death thing might be the hook here ...

> It sounds more to me that the authors are stuck in
> the Italian/Wagner Romantic mode, and are lamenting
> nothing more than the death of the sort of
> accessible music they can relate to easily.

So I'll report back, given a chance ...

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