CREATIVE TOTALITY
What about opera affects people so profoundly that they are moved to protest when its survival is at stake? Perhaps arguments for the form’s unique creative totality imply an otherwise unattainable artistic access. “It spans the whole range of human emotion,” says Shreffler. The artistic breadth in operatic form, then, may expand the aesthetic possibilities of its content. Harvard academics and performers seek to instill this message to a campus that needs only to listen.
—Staff writer Anjali R. Itzkowitz can be reached at aitzkow@college.harvard.edu.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction.
CORRECTION: FEB. 16, 2011
The Feb. 15 article "The Maestro's Medley" incorrectly identified the composer of "Die Fledermaus" as Richard Strauss. In fact, the work was composed by Johann Strauss.