Seeing Opera Anew: A Cultural and Biological Perspective - Paperback

by Joseph Cone (Author)

What people ultimately want from opera, audience research suggests, is to be absorbed in a story that engages their feelings, even moves them deeply, and that may lead them to insights about life and, perhaps, themselves.

How and why can this combination of music and drama do that? What causes people to be moved by opera? How is it that people may become more informed about living and their own lives? Seeing Opera Anew addresses these fundamental questions.

Most approaches to opera present information solely from the humanities, providing musical, literary, and historical interpretations, but this book offers a "stereo" perspective, adding insights from the sciences closely related to human life, including evolutionary biology, psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience. It can be hoped that academic specialists less familiar with the science will find points of interest in this book's novel approach, and that open-minded students and inquisitive opera-goers will be stimulated by its "cultural and biological perspective."

Author Biography

Joseph Cone graduated from Yale University (literature, music, science) and the University of Oregon (communications), and for four decades at Oregon State University his faculty position involved research in, and the practice of, science communication with the public. His love and knowledge of opera began at home and school and grew through years of enjoyment, study, and attending performances. This book is his sixth.