The marriage between perfume and the lyric stage : the essence of opera /

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Includes bibliographical references.Introduction: The beginnings of my perfumed-opera world -- 1. Overture--the beginning of the relationship between perfume and opera : the perfume perspective -- 2. The definitions, characteristics, and types of opera and musical perfumes -- 3. The chronology of opera perfumes (1837-2022) -- 4. The differences between opera, musical celebrity, and other celebrity perfumes -- 5. A visit to the noses : the scent of opera perfumes -- 6. The neurobiology of smell : its connections with our emotions -- 7. The relationship between perfume and opera from the opera perspective : the perfumes, fragrance, scent and flowers in the operas -- 8. Love : the beginnings -- 9. The possible progress and results of love : tragic love, erotic love, heroic love, deceitful love -- 10. Intermezzo : harlequins and jesters -- 11. The theme of death : death and incense, fleurs du mal, femmes fatales, and chemical smells -- 12. Perfumed musicals--a brief glance -- 13. Bad smells at the opera and musicals : odours from the other side of the stage lights : from the audience -- 14. "Bad smells?" : the case against perfumes -- 15. Fragrant scents on the contemporary stages of the lyric theatre : artists with an important relationship to perfume -- 16. The perfumed prima donnas -- 17. A trio of tricky voices amongst perfumed prima donnas -- 18. The perfumed prima donnas with intriguing twists -- 19. Some sweet-scented sopranos -- 20. Selected opera perfume houses -- 21. Curtain call--onto the next season -- Appendix: The shortest English dictionary: explanatory notes on the languages of opera and perfume."'But what is this scent of balmy air? What this ray of light in my tomb? I seem to see an angel, amid a scent of roses' sings Florestan in Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera. The role of scents, smells, fragrances, and odours in opera has long been neglected, just as how much opera and its stars have influenced the world of perfumery from the nineteenth century to the present day. In the first book-length study on the topic, Professor Mary May Robertson explores the relationship between opera, perfumes, and their respective protagonists in order to map out the previously undiscussed connection between the two. Through compelling close readings of librettos and rigorous research through thousands of bottles of perfume, the reader will come to appreciate and recognise the influences and exchanges between operas and perfumes and their ultimate marriage in the previously unrecognised genre of Operatic Perfumes, which is to say, perfumes named after operas, composers, and their divas."--Cover page 4.