Seeing Opera Anew

Seeing Opera Anew offers a "stereo" perspective to opera, adding insights from the sciences closely related to human life, including evolutionary biology, psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience. It has a novel approach, and a "cultural and biological perspective."

Joseph Cone graduated from Yale University (literature, music, science) and the University of Oregon (communications), and for four decades at Oregon State University his faculty position involved research in, and the practice of, science communication with the public. His love and knowledge of opera began at home and school and grew through years of enjoyment, study, and attending performances. This book is his sixth.

Contents Preface PART 1 Music-Dramas, Evolutionary Biology, and Psychology Part 1 Introduction: What Science has to Offer 1 Orfeo: Stories, Singing, and Sexuality 2 Rodelinda: Emotion, Music, and Drama 3 L'Elisir d'Amore: Mate Choice, Comedy, and Consonance 4 Le Nozze di Figaro: Marital Commitment and Challenges to it 5 Don Giovanni, Wozzeck: Assessing Adult Character 6 Die Walküre, Simon Boccanegra: Parenting, Power, and Posterity 7 The Tempest, Lear, Falstaff: Aging and Wisdom PART 2 Cultural Considerations Regarding Opera Part 2 Introduction: What is meant by "Culture" 8 Attracting Audiences: War and Peace, Omar, Song from the Uproar 9 Origins and Innovations: Before and After La Bohème (the movie) 10 Affording Extraordinary Experiences: Les Troyens, Akhnaten Index