Opera's Second Death

by Zizek,Slavoj

• ISBN13: 9780415930178
• ISBN10: 0415930170
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-11-16
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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. But, the psychoanalytic critic and philosopher Slavoj Zizek is quick to point out, 1900 is also the year in which Freud 'invents' psychoanalysis. Can this be a coincidence?Opera's Second Deathis a passionate exploration of opera---the genre, its masterpieces, and the nature of death. Using a dazzling array of tools, Slavoj Zizek and coauthor Mladen Dolar explore the strange compulsions that overpower characters in Mozart and Wagner, as well as our own desires to die and to go to the opera. Mozart's understanding of psychoanalysis and Wagner's sense of humor are but two of the many surprises in Zizek and Dolar's operatic tour de force.Opera's Second Deathis an extended aria on a subject that is far from dead.

Author Biography

Slavoj Zizek is Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut, Essen, Germany. Mladen Dolar is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Table of Contents

Introduction: For the Love of Opera	vii
Slavoj Zizek
Mladen Dolar
IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE	1	(102)
Mladen Dolar
The Birth of Opera from the Spirit of Absolutism	5	(3)
Acheronta movebo	8	(11)
The Logic of Mercy	19	(5)
Opera buffa	24	(4)
Syntax	28	(5)
Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail	33	(5)
Figaro	38	(7)
Don Giovanni	45	(5)
The Opera in Philosophy: Mozart and Kierkegaard	50	(8)
La femme machine	58	(3)
Machine in Love	61	(4)
A Philosopher in the Opera	65	(4)
Machine and Enjoyment	69	(4)
The Rationalistic Myth of the Enlightenment	73	(7)
He Is a Man---Even More, He Is a Prince	80	(7)
Three Continuations	87	(16)
I DO NOT ORDER MY DREAMS''	103	(124)
Slavoj Zizek
The Death Drive and the Wagnerian Sublime	105	(5)
The Forced Choice	110	(4)
The Disavowal	114	(7)
``Deeper Than the Day Could Read''	121	(30)
The What-Ifs	121	(6)
Tristan's Journey to the Bottom of the Night	127	(4)
Transgression? No, Thanks!	131	(4)
Wagner's Sexualized Politics	135	(4)
The Moebius Strip	139	(12)
``The Everlasting Irony of Community''	151	(46)
Wagner with Kierkegaard	151	(5)
Kundry's Laughter...	156	(6)
...and Her Kiss	162	(7)
The Feminine versus Woman	169	(12)
Interlude / The Feminine Excess	181	(16)
Run, Isolde, Run	197	(30)
The Cyberspace Tristan	197	(9)
The Morning After	206	(5)
``It quacks, hoots, pants, and gasps''	211	(4)
The Separated Flames	215	(4)
No More Running	219	(8)
Bibliography	227	(6)
Index	233