Unsettling Opera

The Path forward to N$^3$LO

“…Of course, in mathematics one might also consider alternative definitions, which prioritise other properties. A definition of elliptic multiple polylogarithms, which implements properties (i) and (ii), but gives up property (iii) can be found in [86], a definition, which implements properties (i) and (iii), but gives up (ii) can be found in [83]. The reader is advised to carefully check what is meant by the name "elliptic multiple polylogarithm", this also concerns the definitions in [87,88].…”

Opera Production in Ireland: No Place for Politics?

“…A weak reading fails to do so, tending instead to embrace the prevailing understanding of the work's meaning, seeking to reproduce the work's prevailing aesthetic identity, and often presenting itself as a nonreading, one that does not consciously venture an interpretation but instead merely seeks to present the work in its most familiar form. 9 Further qualification follows, when Levin notes that traditional-looking productions are not necessarily weak, and that seemingly novel stagings are not automatically strong. For him, the nub of the matter lies in the maximization of meaning-meaning that takes account of what he terms the 'polylogic' of opera, i.e., the art form's multiple and 'unsettled' signification systems.…”

Opera and Objecthood: Sedimentation, Spectatorship, and Einstein on the Beach

“…And although most performance texts reiterate a consensus about a given opera text (rendering it readily comprehensible by inflecting it in a recognizable relation to familiar forms of representation), some productions seek to render the characteristic agitation of the opera text. 6 Levin's "two texts" theory recalls Sutcliffe's dismissal of the traditional accoutrements of Ring productions: "readily comprehensible" stagings may "reiterate a consensus" about a given opera, but that consensus is secondary to, and chronologically and conceptually distinct from, the operatic work.…”