Contesting Opera

Abstract

Chapter 6 draws on the paragone, the comparison and contest among the different arts, and on ekphrasis, the rhetorical use of words to evoke visual images for the mind’s eye. It presents a spectrum of examples to prepare for the interpretation, in Chapter 7, of Puccini’s La Bohème. It brings Puccini’s opera onto Parnassus to stand alongside other works that contain ekphrastic moments of biblical, prophetic, or promissory significance. The most obviously pertinent works from among the many self-reflective artist-operas are those aiming for a liberation of life and art through evocations and invocations of the Red Sea Passage.