Talk about Destruction: Barry Emslie welcomes a book of essays on the theory of opera production

It is not until page 233 of this volume that Hegel monopolises, however briefly, the limelight, but the implied (and occasionally explicit) presence of the old trickster can be felt through many of its pages. This is of some significance in a book devoted to radical theory. For we have here, to put it crudely but in no way pejoratively, a very German book. As such its theoretical roots are not those that aficionados of the (Anglo-)French school of cultural studies would expect. Certainly the basic terminology does not surprise – deconstruction, postmodernism etc. crop up regularly – but there is no mention here of Lacan, Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva et al. Instead the strongest theoretical roots go from the dubious dialectical granddaddy himself to Husserl, Benjamin, Adorno et al.