Opera's Second Death [Paperback]

Slavoj Zizek (Author), Mladen Dolar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

Opera's Second Death is 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...provides many new and remarkable conclusions from a contemporary, Eastern European point of viewthat will interest opera specialists and cultural historians..
–A.M. Hanson, Ihoice

....an engaging and frequently illuminating commentary on the impulses, desires and fantasies that enrich both our own lives and those of the colorful characters that populate our favorite operas.
–Barry Millington, BBC Music Magazine Direct, December 1, 2002

About the Author

Slavoj Zizek is Researcher at the University of Ljubljana. Among his many books are The Fragile Absolute and The Ticklish Subject. Mladen Dolar is Professor of Philosopy at the University of Ljubljana.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415930170
• ISBN-13: 978-0415930178
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,389,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Wagner

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opera on the Couch, April 1, 2002

By 

Gyges Three (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Opera's Second Death (Paperback)

To those who love opera and know nothing about psychoanalysis or philosophy this book will be challenging and probably incomprehensible. Still, if anyone can get an Opera Queen to think, it might be Slavoj Zizek and Mladen Dolar. Dolar's is a more conventional and comprehensive treatment of the history of opera as a history of ideas. It is excellent and one can almost read the copious notes as a separate and equally enjoyable experience. Zizek uses particular operas to explain profound and fascinating ideas about love and death, narcissism and self-destruction, through the ideas (among others) of Lacan and Hegel. Ever since Zizek's seminal books explaining the complexities of Lacan and Hegel through popular entertainment he has accrued fame in intellectual circles without ever becoming pompous or complacent. He makes for enjoyable and provocative reading and chances are, after you've read him, you'll be keeping an eye out for his next book.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars leads you backstage into places opera don't know, May 1, 2005

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scarecrow "scarecrow" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Opera's Second Death (Paperback)

Opera is perhaps the most perfect subject for Zizek's gaze with Hegelian negations and Absolutes Lacan's "object petit a,"Four Discourses" in the Master Signifier, the divided self,desire, don't be scared away for the cloistered world of opera can use such insights to help clarify its own anxieties self-indulgences and excesses throughout its histories. In fact opera now cannot live without someone speaking about it deeply as Zizek does, especially the self-conscious dimensions in Wagner's dramas, the negations of the negations(from Hegel) as "Parsifal" a redeemer redeeming the redemption,or dealing with "Other" those aspects that we wish we could do without but are there anyways, like feminist extremism not wanting man to be around,as in Carmen, or Tosca, or Wotan not wanting to be responsible for his pacts carved on his staff. Zizek and Dolar both bring a formidable array of concepts to opera to make some illuminations clearer I think. If you simply want opera to go on as it is without comment, simply sit back and let it wash over your brain, well this is not a book for you.