Grand Opera: Mirror of the Western Mind
Plaut (psychiatry, Northwestern Univ.) analyzes operas and their composers, principally those of the 19th century, in Freudian psychoanalytic terms. Beethoven, Verdi, Puccini, and other greats or near greats chose certain operatic subjects and excelled with them. Plaut makes strong cases for links between the success of certain works and the psychological factors that influenced their composers' creativity. His analysis should give readers new perspectives on some great operas while providing intriguing peeks into the psychological motivations of some of our cultural heroes. The bibliography includes other items of operatic interest with psychological (especially Jungian) or other nontraditional perspectives. For a Jungian perspective on Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen , see Jean Shinoda Bolen's Ring of Power: The Abandoned Child, the Authoritarian Father, and the Disempowered Feminine ( LJ 8/92). Recommended.- James E. Ross, Seattle P.L.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.