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Jacob Todd

Music of the 20
th
and 21
st
Centuries

Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat Response

22 November 2013

The Nashville Operas performance of Michael Nymans chamber opera The Man
Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat was effective because of the gripping premise and
predominantly minimalist score. Based on Oliver Sacks book with the same name, the
plot of the opera is very rich in thought-provoking content that covers peoples
perception of reality and musics role in everyday life. Since the story involves the
neurological disorder of Dr. P, a distinguished music professor and baritone virtuoso, an
opera is an interesting perspective in which to view this story. The constant music of the
opera has fascinating relationships with the music involving Dr. Ps profession. Nymans
mechanical, minimalist score was very effective in contrasting the diegetic music, when
Dr. P sings Schumanns Dichterliebe, and the regular conversations between characters.
This particular production was effective because the set brought out many of the
interesting elements of the book, such as the descriptions of Dr. Ps disorder. All of the
furniture and objects in the set were entirely chrome or black, which gave the setting a
cold and clinical atmosphere. The only exception to this environment was a single rose,
which could represent Dr. Ps disillusionment with the objects around him or the
reflection of humanity onto this clinical, scientific space. Nymans score works in a
similar way towards the total aesthetic of the opera through its very static harmonic
texture, devoid of any strong melodies or themes for the listener to latch onto. This
causes the listener to feel emotionless and numbing because of its constant repetition
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without much change. However, when Dr. P sings the Dichterliebe this provides such a
huge contrast to the music in the rest of the opera that the audience is moved with an
almost overwhelming sense of humanity.
Since the main character, Dr. P., suffers from a neurological condition that causes
him to overlook the details of many objects, such as a persons face, the set was created
to help provide a visualization of his unique perception of reality. Almost all of the
objects in the production were only the outline structure and had all of the details left out.
Objects such as the television, picture frames and photographs were only represented by
solid black squares and other objects like the tables, chairs and piano were only made up
of the outline of the object. A parallel in the music to this visual aesthetic was the
constant quotations of Schumann song cycles. Small fragments of Dichterliebe were
inserted and repeated in the orchestral and the vocal parts to create ostinati patterns. In a
very similar way to Dr. Ps inability to determine what an object was, these Schumann
quotations frequently go unnoticed to the audience because they are out of context and
presented on a miniature scale. In the story, Dr. P. uses music to create meaning and
structure out of the seemingly meaningless perceptions that he encounters. He
incorporates small parts of Schumanns songs into all activities of his life such as eating,
bathing, and getting dressed. For the audience, Nymans miniature quotations of
Schuman function in the same way because they allow the listener to feel find a sense of
familiarity in the unfamiliar minimalist soundtrack that is played consistently throughout
the opera.

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Along with all of the objects on stage, a projection was also played above the
stage for the entire production. This served as a continuation of the rest of the set through
the use of black and white slides and visuals of the brain to create a cold, clinical space.
The projection also was used to show the contrast of actual reality to Dr. P.s skewed
perception of reality. When he is shown pictures of landscapes and is asked to identify
them, the pictures were displayed onto the projection. This was extremely effective when
he describes the picture of a desert as being a beautiful river, filled with energy and life.
The music at this moment suddenly changed to very tonal and rich texture, causing the
audience to feel sympathy for his condition. At another moment, the projection was used
to show Dr. P.s perception of the street he takes to work. Since he uses sound to organize
his life, the side that does not have much sound is very blurry. These visuals add
substantially to the audiences understanding of Dr. P.s condition.
Together with all of these elements, both audio and visual, Nymans opera is
effective because it brings out the fascinating concepts discussed in Oliver Sacks novel,
The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.