Changes

In four compelling essays on classic [[opera]], [[Slavoj Žižek ]] examines how certain [[structural ]] motifs repeatedly dominate the narratives by putting [[desire]], as pure and captivating as possible, into [[music ]] and on [[stage]]. Wagner’s heroes, for [[instance]], suffer from unbearable longing (Parsifal), an excessive [[yearning ]] for the absolute (The Flying Dutchman), a deadly [[surplus ]] of pure [[love ]] (Tristan and Isolde). But why is desire’s [[satisfaction ]] fenced off through [[pain ]] and failure? Why is the unification with the loved one indefinitely postponed? While the [[impossibility ]] of the [[sexual ]] relation and postponed fulfillment are crucial moments in Wagner’s dramatic art, Žižek detects similar motifs, along with [[structures ]] of [[libidinal ]] [[antagonism]], in the operas of Léo Janacek, Peter Tchaikovsky, and Arnold Schoenberg.

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian [[Marxist ]] [[philosopher]], [[psychoanalyst ]] and [[cultural ]] critic. He is a senior researcher at the Institute for [[Sociology ]] and [[Philosophy ]] at the [[University ]] of [[Ljubljana]], [[Slovenia]], and international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities in [[London]]. Together with Dominik Finkelde, he is editor of the series “Lacanian “[[Lacanian]] Explorations” published by August Verlag.