My program essay for Handel's Orlando is now available online:
Madness stalks and flows forth from opera. In a celebrated study, critic Herbert Lindenberger dubbed opera The Extravagant Art: "exceeding reasonable bounds," "given to excess." For Lindenberger, opera strays beyond sensible limits because it attempts, rashly and against all odds, to bring about a synthesis of music, poetry, drama, dance, and the visual arts; because its characters and concerns are larger than life; and because it is often costly to produce and to attend.
Opera also triggers immoderation and eccentricity in those who love it. Its admirers are not merely "fans" but "fanatics." Those two extra syllables carry a reproachful charge, transforming "an ardent devotee" into "a person motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm." Dig deeper, and things go from bad to worse: "from the Latin fanaticus, inspired by orgiastic rites." Wayne Koestenbaum argued in The Queen's Throat that "a taste for opera is sometimes a symbol for diseased passions." He explored opera's appeal for those who are outcast, "queer" by temperament or appetite, even "hysterical."
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