- Aida, on Sunday, Sunday, September 19 (that is this Sunday), at approximately 5:15 p.m.
- The Makropoulos Case, Sunday, November 28, at approximately 4:15 p.m.
Location: Books, Inc., in Opera Plaza, just up Van Ness from War Memorial. Free, open to the public, complementary refreshments.
Both discussions will be led by Dr. Steven Goldberg and Dr. Milton Schaefer of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, and will focus on the characters and their motivations. (Um...okay...me, I think the motivations in Aida are pretty darned obvious: love, patriotism, and the conflict between love and duty.)
Anything that gets people talking is good, though I think these particular discussions are not for me. I am dubious about the location, because you lose potential audience any time you make people move. Still, I imagine it's a lot cheaper to do this at Books, Inc. than to keep the opera house open after a performance. Not to mention, this might sell a few books for that bookstore.
Psychoanalyzing opera characters?
ReplyDeleteRun. Screaming. Opposite direction.
A few years ago, Donna got me a book for my birthday (or Christmas, can't remember which), by Jean Shinoda Bolen, who is a Jungian analyst. It is called Ring of Power and it is about Wagner's Ring.
ReplyDeleteI made it part-way through the introduction, to the paragraph where she says that she is writing the book based on the libretto only, without reference to the music.
BZZZZT. Especially with Wagner, you just can't do that!