The description of epileptic seizures in the classical opera

Abstract

Epilepsy or epileptic seizures have only rarely been described in the classical opera. Four operas were detected, in which epileptic seizures are described also by musical means. Three of them ("Der Golem" by Eugen d'Albert; "Idiot" by Mieczyslaw Weinberg; "Otello" by Giuseppe Verdi) describe a generalized tonic-clonic epileptic seizure by a descending chromatic scale. One opera ("The turn of the screw" by Benjamin Britten) describes temporal lobe seizures by overtone music played by the instrument celesta.

Keywords: Music; Opera; Seizure.