Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS v
3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
4. INTRODUCTION 1
5. Appropriation in Wagner's Tristan Libretto 12
6. Boito and F.-V. Hugo's "Magnificent Translation": A Study in the Genesis of the Otello Libretto 34
7. An Unseen Player: Destiny in FelUas et Malisande 60
8. The Origins of Italian Literaturoper: Guglielmo Ratcliff, La figlia di Iorio, Parisina, and Francesca da Rimini 92
9. Erik's Dream and Tannhauser's Journey 129
10. The Languages of Love in Carmen 168
11. How to Avoid Believing (While Reading Iago's "Credo") 184
12. The Numinous in Gotterdammerung 200
13. Musorgsky's Libretti on Historical Themes: From the Two Borises to Khovanshchina 235
14. Boito and the 1868 Mefistofele Libretto as a Reform Text 268
15. On Reading Nineteenth-Century Opera: Verdi through the Looking-Glass 288
16. Strauss and the Pervert 306
17. A Deconstructive Postscript: Reading Libretti and Misreading Opera 328
18. INDEX 347