What is it about opera that can bring unashamed tears to the eyes of adoring fans? In this book, first published in French in 1986 and now available in English, Michel Poizat explains in a charming way the fascination of the interaction between music and words. Touching on a variety of historical musical events, operatic themes, specific works, and individual composers, Poizat borrows some methods from the field of psychoanalysis to satisfy his curiosity about the strange power of the human voice.
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The author, a scientific researcher in Paris, makes a significant contribution to the centuries-old debate concerning the relative importance of words and music in opera. He argues persuasively that opera's most profound experiences go beyond the staging, beyond the words, to an apprehension of the singing "as pure music free of all ties to speech," offering as a touchstone the hypnotic power of Wagner's mature work. The resulting "jouissance," or ecstasy, is pursued to the point of obsession by opera fanatics. Poizat's wide-ranging discussion, touching on Lacanian psychoanalysis and the historical importance of the castrato, always circles back to his central thesis that the history of opera comprises a drive to transcend verbal expression. Although too rarefied for most general readers, this is a fascinating and original book. Recommended for larger collections.
- E. Gaub, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- E. Gaub, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French
Original Language: French
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
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A Stunning Adventure,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Angel's Cry: Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Opera (Hardcover)
One of the best books I have read in ten years. I have been reading a LOT of books about opera but this one stands alone because it answers questions about what motivates, captures and captivates opera lovers. Poizat's book falls into three main pieces. He begins with a transcript of a long conversation that actually took place among passionate opera fans standing overnight for tickets to the next night's Tristan performance at the Paris Opera. The fans talk about their passion, bordering on obsession in many cases. What drives opera fans to spend too much money, to stand in the rain, to travel to other cities? Theirs is a quest for what Poizat calls "The Lost Voice." The second section explains, using psychology concepts, Jungian archetypes and a dizzying scope directly into the human soul. Poizat uses the concept of "jouissance" which the translator warns cannot be translated directly into English. It has elements of ownership, our ability to enjoy something because we possess it but also encompasses a type of ecstasy not removed from sexual pleasure. This is the driving force of the quest for The Lost Voice. Once experienced, we are ever seeking more. The third section illuminates how The Lost Voice appears in operas through many examples. Through The Lost Voice we experience divine silence, the silence that rings out after the Angel's Cry. The book wraps neatly by coming back to the waiting fans to hear the end of their conversation. "To go to the opera is to listen to life?" one says. "I'm absolutely certain of that," comes the answer. "A kind of truth appears, a physical truth...an intellectual truth even." The tape breaks off shorty thereafter at an ironic and profound moment in the conversation. Well, you have to read it for yourself! If you think you know what a book on opera reads like, you owe it to your jaded self to get this book. It raised the hairs on the back of my neck more than once. --Joy Hajduk-DeGraff, Chicago, Illinois
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Inside This Book
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Several years ago French television stations and movie houses carried a commercial that many people may still recall: an opening shot of the Avenue de l'Opéra, which then continues up the avenue and into the Palais Gamier, at that time still the home of the Paris Opéra. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Don Giovanni, Richard Wagner, Don Juan, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, New York, Queen of the Night, Das Rheingold, Isolde's Transfiguration, King Marke, Palais Garnier, The Angel's Cry, Art-work of the Future, Henri Rey-Flaud, Arnold Schoenberg, Cosi Fan Tutte, Deutsche Grammophon, Franz de Telek, Henri Barraud, Jack the Ripper, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mathilde Wesendonck, Ninth Symphony, Oscar Wilde, Pierre Boulez New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Several years ago French television stations and movie houses carried a commercial that many people may still recall: an opening shot of the Avenue de l'Opéra, which then continues up the avenue and into the Palais Gamier, at that time still the home of the Paris Opéra. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Don Giovanni, Richard Wagner, Don Juan, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, New York, Queen of the Night, Das Rheingold, Isolde's Transfiguration, King Marke, Palais Garnier, The Angel's Cry, Art-work of the Future, Henri Rey-Flaud, Arnold Schoenberg, Cosi Fan Tutte, Deutsche Grammophon, Franz de Telek, Henri Barraud, Jack the Ripper, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mathilde Wesendonck, Ninth Symphony, Oscar Wilde, Pierre Boulez New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 34
books:
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31
books
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- Tristan and Isolde: English National Opera Guide 6 (English National Opera Guides) by Richard Wagner on 19 pages
- Don Giovanni in Full Score by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on 14 pages
- Opera and Drama by Richard Wagner on 6 pages
- Das Rheingold: G. Schirmer Opera Score, Ed. 1563 (Complete Vocal Score) by F Jameson on 5 pages
- Prose Works (8 Volumes) (Music Book Index) by Richard Wagner on page 71, page 78, and Back Matter
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- Programming the Absolute: Nineteenth-Century German Music and the Hermeneutics of the Moment. by Berthold Hoeckner in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Music, Sensation, and Sensuality (Critical and Cultural Musicology) by Linda Phyllis Austern in Front Matter, page 136, and page 208
- Dumbstruck: A Cultural History of Ventriloquism by Steven Connor on page 39, and Back Matter
- The Apparitional Lesbian by Terry Castle in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Siren Songs : Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera by Mary Ann Smart in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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