Grand Illusion: Phantasmagoria in Nineteenth-Century Opera, by Gabriela Cruz

In this exploration of an emergent “culture of illusion” (p. xv) and modern, technologically inspired fusions of the visual and aural in grand opera spectacle, Gabriela Cruz highlights works by three leading composers known for their contributions to the changing operatic dramaturgy of the nineteenth century. Within case studies of Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable and L’Africaine, Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and Tristan und Isolde, and Verdi’s Aida, she interweaves multivalent, thought-provoking concepts to construct a philosophically rich, poetically styled, and diversely sourced narrative. Cruz’s central focus on “phantasmagoria,” although broached in previous studies, brings renewed attention to the transformation of the spectacle and spectatorship of grand opera: not only does she attempt a phantasmagorical manner of interpretation, but she searches for the origins, representation, and modernity of phantasmagoria and related ideas of dreams and apparitions, which she describes as inspirational forces for—and beneficiaries of—innovations in theatrical lighting...