Contemporary Neuro-Opera

Neuropsychiatric and neurological diseases are represented in Opera in the contemporary era. The influence of the theories of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) is well evident in Salome (1905) and Elektra (1909) by Richard Strauss (1864–1949), by the Austrian composer Schoenberg (1874–1951) in Erwartung (1924), and in La cena delle beffe (1924) by Umberto Giordano (1867–1948). Neuropsychiatric diseases are presented in clinical connotations by Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) with The Rake’s Progress (1951). Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) offered Peter Grimes (1945), The rape of Lucretia (1946), Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960), Curlew River (1964) and The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966). The English composer Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016) composed Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969). The Swedish composer Livlægens Besøg's The Visit of the Royal Physician (2008), and the German Detlev Glanert's Nijinskys Tagebuch (2008) deal with problems related to schizophrenia. Dementia is shown in The Lion’s Face (2010) by the English composers Elena Langer and Glyn Maxwell, and Love Hurts (2016) by Nicola Moro. There are recent works related to neuroscientific problems, such as those of the English composer Michael Nyman with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1986), from an adaptation of a book by the neurologist Oliver Sacks (1933– 2015). Nyman himself, with Facing Goya (2000), refers to a biological theme between innate and acquired traits such as craniology or craniometry. The theme is closely linked to a work by the Italian Fabrizio de Rossi Re entitled Cesare Lombroso o il corpo come principio morale (2001). In contemporary period, opera continues to reflect the neuroscientific debate