Mats Norrman <[log in to unmask]>:

>>Then opera is about love (is Boris Godunov the only opera without
>>a love szene?)

No love scene? What about the magnificent one between Marina and Dmitri
at the climax of the Polish Act, perhaps the finest love duet in Russian
Opera with the possible exception of the last scene of "Eugene Onegin"
(if that indeed qualifies).

Pablo Massa <[log in to unmask]> responds:

>Interesting question.  "Cavalleria Rusticana", "Billy Budd"?.

"Cavalleria Rusticana" is all about love, and the Santuzza-Turiddu scene is
certainly a love scene of sorts, though one without satisfaction to either
party.  Then, of course, there is the Lovely Lola.

"Billy Budd" has lots of them, too, even if they are, by their nature,
somewhat ...  well, closeted.  I'd cite The Novice and his Friend, Claggart
and Budd, Vere and Budd.  Claggart's aria "Beauty, handsomeness, goodness"
is one of the most extraordinary - and shocking - declarations of love in
all opera (" ...  if Love still lives and grows strong, where I cannot
enter?")

Of course, Pablo Massa raises a good point about what actually
constitutes a love scene - almost as difficult a point as what constitutes
an opera.  I'd go for anything based on Greek Mythic Tragedy - "Oedipus
Rex" by Stravinsky, "Oedipe" by Enescu (what a work!) and Strauss's
"Elektra" will do for a start.  And apart from one brief, sentimental
croon by the doomed giant Fasolt, there's not one in "Das Rheingold"
either!

Mats, what is "Genus-Historicism"?

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"