Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Opera

  • The parallel paths of opera and medicine

    In 1597 when Jacopo Peri composed Dafne, the first opera ever written, sporadic epidemics of bubonic plague were still striking his city of Florence. Venice was also suffering greatly. It had been visited by the plague twenty-two times, and some 50,000 of its people had died in 1576. The plague affected predominantly the poor in…

  • The patronage and playability of Mozart’s flute works

    Stephen MartinDurham, United Kingdom It is therapeutic to have an intellectual interest outside clinical work, a hinterland to recharge the batteries. Music gives stimulation, enjoyment, and refreshment while resting the verbal brain. This is nothing new. Dr Ferdinand Dejean1 paid Mozart to write an extraordinary number of flute works, the largest example of a great…

  • Richard Wagner, a man of many symptoms

    Richard Wagner was an extraordinarily talented musical genius. Almost singlehandedly he revolutionized opera, completing its transformation from the traditional recitative–aria format to a continuous musical drama. He was born in 1813 in turbulent times in Leipzig. There four months after his birth the combined forces of Prussia, Austria, Sweden, and Russia defeated the once invincible…

  • Maria Callas—her inner voice revealed

    Eelco WijdicksLea DacyRochester, Minnesota, United States In Prima Donna: The Psychology of Maria Callas, Paul Wink convincingly concludes—based on largely secondary sources—that Maria Callas was not only a wildly ambitious operator who was not known for an emollient manner, but a prime example of narcissism. Wink, a professor of psychology at Wellesley College, used conventional…

  • The finality in their voices II: Physiology-defying violent opera death

    Lea C. DacyEelco F.M. WijdicksRochester, Minnesota, United States In a previous article, we reviewed the plausibility of opera deaths in wasting diseases such as that of Violetta in La Traviata. But operatic death is not always gentle: murder, suicide, and executions regularly befall operatic heroes and villains. These often make a great impression but do…

  • The finality in their voices: Death, disease, and palliation in opera

    Lea C. DacyEelco F. M. WijdicksRochester, Minnesota, United States I know she had tuberculosis! She was coughing her brains out . . . but still she kept right on singing.* Operatic death is often glorious, melodious, and heartbreaking. Naturally, composers and librettists can claim pristine ignorance when it comes to the process of dying. Leaving…

  • Ladies in red: Medical and metaphorical reflections on La Traviata

    Milad MattaGregory RuteckiLyndhurst, Ohio, United States “. . . phthisic beauty[’s] . . . most famous operatic embodiment was Violetta Valery . . .This physical type became not only fashionable but sexy . . . When a society does not understand—and cannot control—a disease, ground seems to open up for mythologizing . . . it.”1…

  • Bad blood: The drama of bloodshed

    Emily BoyleDublin, Ireland In some professions, bloodstained clothing is a normal part of the job. The two jobs that come to mind principally are a butcher and a vascular surgeon, although the latter would probably prefer not to be associated with the former! In vascular surgery not every operation results in bloodstained scrubs, although for…

  • Gioachino Rossini of The Barber of Seville (1792–1868)

    In The Barber of Seville, Doctor Bartolo is a pompous, grumpy old man who wants to marry his young niece many years his junior and whom he basically keeps locked up. As he appears on stage, he makes sure that all the doors are firmly secured so that nobody can enter the house while he…

  • “Breath of life you’ll be to me”—The portrayal of tuberculosis in the opera La Traviata

    Judith WagnerMunich, Germany The white half-round of the stage is illuminated with an eerie blue light. The only prop is a large clock on the right-hand side. A dark figure is seated beside it. The door on the left opens and the heroine—clad all in red—enters the stage. Strings accompany her appearance with a low…