Opera, Sex and Other Vital Matters

by Robinson, Paul A.

• ISBN13: 9780226721835
• ISBN10: 0226721833
• Format: Paperback
• 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	ix
Acknowledgments	xvii
Opera
A Symposium on Opera and Ideas with Bernard Williams and Peter Kivy	3	(27)
Reading Libretti and Misreading Opera	30	(22)
The Musical Enlightenment: Haydn's Creation and Mozart's Magic Flute	52	(23)
Fidelio and the French Revolution	75	(37)
Verdi's Fathers and Daughters	112	(11)
Is Aida an Orientalist Opera?	123	(11)
The Wagner Problem	134	(14)
Richard Strauss, Ambivalent Modernist	148	(9)
Jex
The Opera Queen: A Voice from the Closet	157	(13)
Homosexuality: Choice or Destiny?	170	(15)
Sex Studies and Sex Books: Four Reviews	185	(21)
For the Love of Big Brother: The Sexual Politics of Nineteen Eighty-Four	206	(13)
``Dear Paul'': An Exchange between Student and Teacher	219	(22)
OTHER VITAL MATTERS
Three Essays on Freud	241	(38)
Freud under Siege	241	(14)
Freud and the Feminists	255	(18)
Freud and Homosexuality	273	(6)
H. Stuart Hughes and Intellectual History	279	(14)
Three Essays on Writing	293	(15)
Why Write?	293	(6)
Lost Causes	299	(4)
The Philosophy of Punctuation	303	(5)
Cats	308	(5)
Epilogue: My Afterlife	313	(10)
Index	323