ABSTRACT
Most biographies of Mendelssohn, even those based on solid research and lacking the trashy proclivities of La Mure, speculate as to why he never produced a mature opera despite dozens of desperate attempts in a more than supportive environment. Throughout his career, Mendelssohn was in contact with dozens of potential librettists, among them the leading authors of his day. As soon as Mendelssohn expressed a preliminary interest in a libretto sketch by Scribe on Shakespeare's Tempest, Lumley took the liberty of interpreting it as an acceptance. In this book, Mendelssohn appears thinly disguised as the 'Chevalier Seraphael'. Ironically, the anti-Mendelssohn opera sounds like a very entertaining affair: The opera was called 'Emancipation; or: the Modern Orpheus'. Opera plays an even more symbolistic role in Beyond Desire.. The ultimate result of the dramatized emotional turmoil created by two opposing representations of Mendelssohn is a posthumous 'romanticization' of the composer, in which opera plays an important role.
