Nineteenth-Century Opera and the Scientific Imagination

David Trippett is University Senior Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. His first monograph, Wagner's Melodies (Cambridge, 2013), examines the cultural and scientific history of melodic theory in relation to Wagner's writings and music. He recently co-edited the Companion to Music in Digital Culture (Cambridge, forthcoming) and produced a critical reconstruction of Liszt's opera, Sardanapalo for the Neue Liszt Ausgabe, which he orchestrated for Schott. Benjamin Walton is University Senior Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Jesus College. His monograph, Rossini in Restoration Paris: The Sound of Modern Life (Cambridge) was published in 2007, and a collection of essays entitled The Invention of Beethoven and Rossini (2013) was co-edited with Nicholas Mathew. From 2014–18 he was co-editor of Cambridge Opera Journal.

• 1. Introduction: the laboratory and the stage David Trippett and Benjamin Walton; Part I. Voices: 2. Pneumotypes: Jean de Reszke's high pianissimos and the occult sciences of breathing James Q. Davies; 3. Vocal culture in the age of laryngoscopy Benjamin Steege; 4. Operatic fantasies in early nineteenth-century psychiatry Carmel Raz; 5. Opera and hypnosis: Victor Maurel's experiments in suggestion with Verdi's Otello Céline Frigau Manning; Part II. Ears: 6. Hearing space in the music of Hector Berlioz Julia Kursell; 7. From distant sounds to Aeolian ears: Ernst Kapp's auditory prosthesis David Trippett; 8. Wagner, hearing loss, and the urban soundscape of late nineteenth-century Germany James Deaville; Part III. Technologies: 9. Science, technology and love in late eighteenth-century opera Deirdre Loughridge; 10. Technological phantoms of the opéra Benjamin Walton; 11. Circuit listening Ellen Lockhart; Part IV. Bodies: 12. Excelsior as mass ornament: the reproduction of gesture Gavin Williams; 13. Automata, physiology and opera Myles Jackson; 14. Wagnerian manipulation: Bayreuth and the sciences of the mind James Kennaway; 15. Unsound seeds Alexander Rehding.

'There is an interesting discussion of whether opera was beneficial or dangerous for the mentally ill. This exploration of the intersection of two important aspects of 19th-century Western life will interest scientists and musicians alike.' R. Pitts, Choice