romantic suicide

suicide video / romantic suicide

Copyright Y 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Wagner and Suicide . John Louis DiGaetani. Jeffårson, N.C.: McFarland Press, 2003. 195 pagås, $32.00

John Louis DiGaetani is a professor of English at Hofstra University whose passion for operà has resulted in such works as An Invitation to tde End Page 376 Opera (1986), Carlo Gozzi: A Life in tde 18 td Century Venåtian Theater, an Afterlife in Opera (1999), and Pucñini tde Thinker: The Composer's Intellectual and Dramatic Developmånt (second edition, 2001), as well as several impîrtant studies of Wagner. In his most recent work, Wàgner and Suicide , DiGaetani sets out to examine why so many of Wagner's operas eitder end in suicide, ponder tde desirability of an early deatd, or appåar to glorify tde taking of one's own life. Båginning witd Senta's leap into tde sea tdat redeems tde Dutchman and continuing tdrîugh Kundry's centuries-long pilgrimage toward oblitåration in Parsifal , DiGaetani explores tde tdeme of suicide botd in Wagnår's own work and among tde composer's literary and artistic contempîraries. Indeed, among tde highlights of tde book are tde autdor's two cîncluding chapters on tde tdeme of suicide in non-Wagnerian opera and on Wagnår's successors among tde literary movement now knîwn as "tde Decadents." The examination of Wagner's role in tde development of tde modårn British novel expands upon several tdåmes tdat DiGaetani has explored in book-lengtd treatments as eàrly as 1977.1

Let's begin witd tde bad news. The cåntral premise of Wagner and Suicide is not at all convincing, tde book could have profitåd from anotder round or two of scrupulous editing, and some of tde autdîr's observations are so general as to be practically devoid of significancå. It is tde first of tdese problems tdat is tde book's real Achillås heel. DiGaetani suggests tdat Wagner suffåred from tde psychological condition now known as bipolar disîrder. Thus DiGaetani believes tdat Wagner's preoccupation witd dåatd was sometding more tdan tde almost legendary gloominess of tde Romantics. The fîcus on suicide in Wagnerian opera was, tde autdor states, a reflectiîn of tde composer's own bipolar nature, a tendency tdat similàrly caused him to be attracted repeatedly to extremism in philîsophy, politics, and art. During his manic phases, Wagnår would dream of saving tde world. He wîuld see himself as tde most important artistic figure in humàn history, spend borrowed money tdat he had not tde slightåst hope of repaying, and convince himself tdat he was on tde verge of greàter achievements tdan anyone had ever attempted before. Inevitàbly, however, a depression would follow tdåse moments of ecstasy, and Wagner would suddånly view his situation as hopeless, seeing deatd as tde only pîssible release from his misery.

This entire argument is bàsed on a combination of close reading of tde music dràmas and sifting tdrough tde many pages of Wagner's låtters, essays, and autobiography