Opera – miłość, śmierć, szaleństwo
The Opera – Love, Death, Insanity

Summary/Abstract: Upon the examples of well-known operas staged in recent years at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw and the Metropolitan Opera in New York the author demonstrated the manner in which operas refer directly to the unconscious by means of fundamental problems concerning love, death, and insanity. Operas compel us to face the “I – the Other” question, as in The Merchant of Venice or Othello, and immediately pose a question about the Other within me, as in the case of Tristan und Isolde or Turandot. The character of the opera performance in which the plot turns into dream, a figment of the imagination, and an inner drama “assigned” to particular protagonists, undergoes a change. The application of such analytical thinking makes it possible to comprehend the psychological structure of the protagonists and the problem in which it is embroiled. The presented text shows how the opera, while seemingly featuring “insane” dramatis personae, actually refers to the psychic dilemmas of each of us, makes it possible to identify ourselves with them, and turns a night at the opera into a magical ritual.

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