From Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea, which premiered in Venice in 1643, to Wolfgang Rihm’s Jacob Lenz, first staged in Hamburg in 1979, via Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which opened in Naples in 1835, disturbances of the mind have always had their place in opera. Composers, especially of the romantic era, saw perfectly well that “mad scenes” offered them a chance to give free rein to their talent and inspiration, to offer singers bravura pieces, with musical lushness, vocal prowess, duos, trios… and even sextets, that thrilled audiences by allowing them to penetrate the torments of the human soul.
Obviously, the history of madness – in terms of both medical knowledge and social and philosophical representations – crisscrosses that of opera, which sheds light in turn on each era’s ideas about unhinged minds. It is this dialogue between art and science that the authors explore, weaving together their passion for opera and their clinical experience.