Opera, Sex and Other Vital Matters

by Robinson, Paul A.

• ISBN13: 9780226721828
• ISBN10: 0226721825
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-06-08
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Opera, Sex, and Other Vital Mattersgathers both classic and never-before-published essays from one of the leading stylists in contemporary American letters, and one of our more revered public intellectuals, Paul Robinson. Diverse and elegant, the essays in this new collection showcase the sly wit and lightly worn erudition of their author. Each celebrates art and the flesh, directing us to the twin ecstasies of music and eros. The essays on opera gathered here explore how masterpieces like Fidelioand The Magic Flutereflect the intellectual currents of their day. Be it the work of Verdi or Mozart, Wagner or Strauss, Robinson compels us to search for meaning not just in the lyrics of opera but also in the music. In melody, not libretto, we are more likely to discern key historical complexities and appreciate the way opera transcends language and time. The essays on sexuality, meanwhile, are ruminative, funny, and even moving. At one moment, Robinson measures whether homosexuality is the result of destiny or free choice. In another, he shares a touching exchange of letters with a gay student in the process of coming out. The final essays that encompass "other vital matters" find Robinson at his most incisive. Whether defending Freud as the most influential thinker of the twentieth century, attacking the dreaded use of semicolons, reflecting on his own mortality, or even meditating on the nature of cats, Sex, Opera, and Other Vital Mattersis an eclectic work that will appeal to any reader interested in the continuing relevance of ideas to life.

Author Biography

Paul Robinson is the Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. He is the author of a number of books, including Opera and Ideas: From Mozart to Strauss and Gay Lives: Homosexual Autobiography from John Addington Symonds to Paul Monette, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xvii
Opera
A Symposium on Opera and Ideas with Bernard Williams and Peter Kivy	p. 3
Reading Libretti and Misreading Opera	p. 30
The Musical Enlightenment: Haydn's Creation and Mozart's Magic Flute	p. 52
Fidelio and the French Revolution	p. 75
Verdi's Fathers and Daughters	p. 112
Is Aida an Orientalist Opera?	p. 123
The Wagner Problem	p. 134
Richard Strauss, Ambivalent Modernist	p. 148
Sex
The Opera Queen: A Voice from the Closet	p. 157
Homosexuality: Choice or Destiny?	p. 170
Sex Studies and Sex Books: Four Reviews	p. 185
For the Love of Big Brother: The Sexual Politics of Nineteen Eighty-Four	p. 206
"Dear Paul": An Exchange between Student and Teacher	p. 219
Other Vital Matters
Three Essays on Freud	p. 241
Freud under Siege	p. 241
Freud and the Feminists	p. 255
Freud and Homosexuality	p. 273
H. Stuart Hughes and Intellectual History	p. 279
Three Essays on Writing	p. 293
Why Write?	p. 293
Lost Causes	p. 299
The Philosophy of Punctuation	p. 303
Cats	p. 308
Epilogue: My Afterlife	p. 313
Index	p. 323
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