Opera and the fantastic
So I was flipping through The Encyclopedia of Fantasy in preparation
for teaching an upcoming instruction session (for a class with fantasy
fiction on the syllabus), and came across an entry on "Opera." A really
long entry, consisting of a 20-page-long list of operas "based on
myths, legends, folktales and so on or that contain fantasy elements,"
arranged chronologically by composer. Since classical mythology was the basis for pretty much every baroque
opera ever, there are plenty of obscure
17th- and 18th-century operas I’d never heard of. But the list of modern operas is equally long and fascinating. I promptly photocopied the
whole entry to stick into my Kobbé’s Opera Book as
a supplement.
I wouldn’t have thought that the fantasy fans and opera fans would intersect, but it makes a certain amount of sense: verismo aside, opera isn’t exactly known for sticking to realistic elements and avoiding fantastic ones. Every librettist and their brother seems to have had a go at the Orpheus myth, or the Faust legend, or the Brothers Grimm, or E.T.A. Hoffmann’s "The Sandman."
This is why reference books, especially outside one’s usual areas of interest, are so much fun to browse. Though this one was particularly entertaining; you’ve got to love an encyclopedia that encompasses
Hieronmyus Bosch, Milton, Borges, surrealism, Edmund Spenser, and H.P.
Lovecraft. (There didn’t seem to be any Lovecraftian operas in the list — just as well, probably — but I’d never known that both Debussy and Philip Glass, among others, adapted Poe’s "The Fall of the House of Usher.")
I knew you’d have a Kobbé’s. And I’ve got a friend down the river who’s teaching a sophomore seminar on literature of the fantastic and magical — zombies to Harry Potter — and I’ve wondered what my own syllabus for such a class might look like.