Book contents
- Nineteenth-Century Opera and the Scientific Imagination
- Nineteenth-Century Opera and the Scientific Imagination
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Voices
- Part II Ears
- Part III Technologies
- Part IV Bodies
- 11 Excelsior as Mass Ornament
- 12 Automata, Physiology and Opera in the Nineteenth Century
- 13 Wagnerian Manipulation
- 14 Unsound Seeds
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - Automata, Physiology and Opera in the Nineteenth Century
from Part IV - Bodies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2019
- Nineteenth-Century Opera and the Scientific Imagination
- Nineteenth-Century Opera and the Scientific Imagination
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Voices
- Part II Ears
- Part III Technologies
- Part IV Bodies
- 11 Excelsior as Mass Ornament
- 12 Automata, Physiology and Opera in the Nineteenth Century
- 13 Wagnerian Manipulation
- 14 Unsound Seeds
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
E. T. A. Hoffmann’s eerie tale of ‘Der Sandmann’ (1816) famously recounts the story of a young college student, Nathanael, who unwittingly falls in love with an android named Olympia, a creation of the professor of physics and renowned Naturforscher Spalanzani. After seeing her through a telescope, Nathanael is enchanted by her beauty. Spalanzani invites Nathanael and others to a celebration at his house, where Olympia is to make her grand debut as the professor’s daughter. Nathanael proceeds to dance with the automaton all night long. His visits become more frequent, while he remains blissfully unaware of the fact that she is not human. One day Nathanael hears a quarrel between Spalanzani and the mechanician Coppelius in the professor’s apartment. Coppelius wrestles Olympia away from Spalanzani and runs away carrying the automaton over his shoulder.
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- Nineteenth-Century Opera and the Scientific Imagination , pp. 269 - 286Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019