Auditions

From the Executive Editor:

My introduction to the last issue of The Opera Quarterly prepared our readers for the timed release of a series of new rubrics. Vol. 21, no. 3, marked the appearance of the first new rubric, "Notes from the Stage." In this issue, vol. 21, no. 4, we unveil a second new rubric: "Auditions." The voices we present here will be largely unknown—otherwise, of course, they would hardly need to be auditioned. But they will be unknown for varying reasons. On one hand, as is the case with the following contribution by Gilles Deleuze (Périclès et Verdi, translated here for the first time into English), the voice may be famous but not to an opera audience—or indeed, not to an English-speaking opera audience. (Even after his untimely death in November 2005, Deleuze remains one of the most important French philosophers. More on this follows in Alessandra Campana's introduction.) In the future, we will audition a disparate series of (mostly but not exclusively critical) voices—ones that are important historically but which have somehow drifted from contemporary attention; others that offer unfamiliar perspectives on familiar works; or unfamiliar essays, reviews, and polemics from otherwise familiar critical personalities. The goal is to bring to the attention of our readers a broad spectrum of voices from various epochs, disciplines, perspectives, and nationalities. And since the voices will tend to be unknown to many, each "Audition" will be preceded by a critical introduction, ensuring that both the voice and the material are properly contextualized. As with all of our work, we invite comments and suggestions from our readers.