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Book Review
Jan. 20th, 2013 03:49 pmGrand Opera: Mirror of the Western Mind
by Eric A. Plaut
This book covers 18 of the major 19th century operas, starting with Mozart (it's the "long 19th century") and ending with Richard Strauss, from a psychological perspective. Thus, Plaut concentrates more on the librettos, the composer's lives, and the relationship between the two rather than on musical features. However, Plaut does regularly bring in the musical content, making extremely interesting and insightful observations in the process. I particularly liked his point about the kind of music written for Don Giovanni and Leporello versus that for the other main characters. Plaut's discussions of Verdi's and Puccini's works were also illuminating.
However, this book did fall short on a couple of points for me. Plaut relies heavily on Freudian psychology, which, while in many ways appropriate for operas that emanated out of similar cultural milieus as Freud himself, was not always convincing. Thankfully, Plaut is not unconditionally committed to the Freudian view, and even includes a really nice, concise take-down of Freud's views on female psychology. The other problem with the book for me was that, in covering 18 operas in a little over 300 pages, I did not feel that there was enough depth. After reading a chapter, I often was left wanting more. I rather wish that Plaut had chosen 9 or 10 operas instead so that he could have done more extensive analysis.
by Eric A. Plaut
This book covers 18 of the major 19th century operas, starting with Mozart (it's the "long 19th century") and ending with Richard Strauss, from a psychological perspective. Thus, Plaut concentrates more on the librettos, the composer's lives, and the relationship between the two rather than on musical features. However, Plaut does regularly bring in the musical content, making extremely interesting and insightful observations in the process. I particularly liked his point about the kind of music written for Don Giovanni and Leporello versus that for the other main characters. Plaut's discussions of Verdi's and Puccini's works were also illuminating.
However, this book did fall short on a couple of points for me. Plaut relies heavily on Freudian psychology, which, while in many ways appropriate for operas that emanated out of similar cultural milieus as Freud himself, was not always convincing. Thankfully, Plaut is not unconditionally committed to the Freudian view, and even includes a really nice, concise take-down of Freud's views on female psychology. The other problem with the book for me was that, in covering 18 operas in a little over 300 pages, I did not feel that there was enough depth. After reading a chapter, I often was left wanting more. I rather wish that Plaut had chosen 9 or 10 operas instead so that he could have done more extensive analysis.
