{"title":"Axel Englund","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAxel Englund\u003c\/strong\u003e offers a unique approach to \u003cem\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/em\u003e, blending insightful critique with a creative narrative style. His works invite readers to explore complex themes through thought-provoking analysis and vivid storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the evocative depths of \u003cem\u003eDeviant Opera\u003c\/em\u003e to other explorations of cultural expression, Englund's writing challenges conventional perspectives and enriches understanding of artistic innovation and its impact on society.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"deviant-opera-by-axel-englund-9780520343252","title":"Deviant Opera","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImagine Armida, Handel’s Saracen sorceress, performing her breakneck coloraturas in a black figure-hugging rubber dress, beating her insubordinate furies into submission with a cane, suspending a captive Rinaldo in chains from the ceiling of her dungeon. Mozart’s peasant girl Zerlina, meanwhile, is tying up and blindfolding her fiancé to seduce him out of his jealousy of Don Giovanni. And how about Wagner’s wizard, Klingsor, ensnaring his choir of flower maidens in elaborate Japanese rope bondage?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOpera, it would appear, has developed a taste for sadomasochism. For decades now, radical stage directors have repeatedly dressed canonical operas—from Handel and Mozart to Wagner and Puccini, and beyond—in whips, chains, leather, and other regalia of SM and fetishism. \u003ci\u003eDeviant Opera\u003c\/i\u003e seeks to understand this phenomenon, approaching the contemporary visual code of perversion as a lens through which opera focuses and scrutinises its own configurations of sex, gender, power, and violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe emerging image is that of an art form that habitually plays with an eroticisation of cruelty and humiliation, inviting its devotees to take sensual pleasure in the suffering of others. Ultimately, \u003ci\u003eDeviant Opera\u003c\/i\u003e argues that this species of opera fantasises about breaking the boundaries of its own role-playing, and pushing its erotic power exchanges from the enacted to the actual.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47470422425836,"sku":"9780520343252","price":62.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780520343252-deviant-opera.jpg?v=1775219040"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/axel-englund.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}