Innehåller bibliografi

The Dionysian heritage in The magic flute ; Dionysian sound and the legend about Hamelin's piper ; The Dionysian signs in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser ; On evil and exoticness in Weber's and Rossini's output ; Patriotism and the Orient in the Empire era ; W. A. Mozart's Cosi fan tutte as a Turkish opera

Reflections on Opera, Faith and the Orient examines the portrayal of ancient religions and the Orient in operas and incidental music by Ludwig van Beethoven, W. A. Mozart, Gioachino Rossini, Gasparo Spontini, Richard Wagner and Carl Maria von Weber. The book adds to our understanding about the manifestation of classic aesthetic heritage in late 18th- and early to mid-19th-century musical culture, opera in particular. The central method of the author's scrutiny of operas is semiotic music analysis, by which she uncovers traces of classic Dionysian aesthetics. Next to that, she reflects on the ways in which music made known ideals such as heroism and patriotism, and reveals aspects of the libido's musical manifestation. Besides, she shows that some compositions equaled philosophical discussion on topics such as art's purpose or social life's right ethical basis