human information behaviour in 'L'elisir d'amore' ('Elixir of Love'), a 19th century opera buffa (comic opera) in two acts, by composer. Gaetano Donizetti ...
Introduction Opera, dubbed ‘the queen of performing arts’, remains a practically unexplored source for information research. We report on an investigation designed to identify patterns of human information behaviour in ‘L'elisir d'amore’ (‘Elixir of Love’), a 19th century opera buffa (comic opera) in two acts, by composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) and librettist Felice Romani (1788-1865). L'elisir d'amore deals with the mundane lifestyle of ordinary people and reflects on their casual conduct. As such, it maintains social relevance that enables a delineated view, through the melodramatic work, into the information behaviour of people on the early 19th century Italian peninsula (the setting of the opera, as well as the home of Donizetti and Romani [1]).
L'elisir d'amore’s information compound & molecules
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Methodology This study is part of the emergent research framework of Information Studies in the Arts. The study uses a hermeneutic reading from an information-behavioural perspective, of L'elisir d'amore libretto’s 1885 Oliver Ditson Co. edition with Italian text and English translation [1], through which several information-behavioural “central themes” [2: p. 237] were identified.
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All choices and sense-making are subjective. The epistemological treatment of operatic characters as if they were real people is broadly argued and defended [3], and pertinent also to L'elisir d'amore’s characters and the activities they engage in [4].
Conclusions L'elisir d'amore provides an abundance of noteworthy examples of information serendipity, pseudo-serendipity, zemblanity, disruptive discovery, and nemorinity, in the temporal and cultural context of the early 19th century Italian countryside. This insight is achieved even within the concise and meticulous libretto, common in the opera genre due to the need to combine poetics with musical and dramatic performance [13]. The operatic oeuvre is suggested as a scholastic resource for developing information research and discourse, especially as a basis for human information behaviour analysis.
Cite: Solomon, Y., Bronstein, J. (2018, March). Information serendipity, pseudo-serendipity, zemblanity, disruptive discovery and nemorinity: Revisiting Donizetti’s and Romani's opera buffa L'elisir d'Amore. Poster session presented at iConference 2018, Sheffield, UK.
References:
1. Donizetti, G.: Grand opera librettos: Italian and English text and music of the principal airs, L’elisire d’amore (the elixir of love). Oliver Ditson Company, Boston (1885). 2. Kets de Vries, M.F.R., Miller, D: Interpreting organizational texts. Journal of Management Studies, 24(3), 233-247 (1987). 3. Grier, F.: Thoughts on Rigoletto. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 92, 1541-1559 (2011). 4. Peschel, E.R., Peschel, R.E.: Medicine and opera: the quack in history and Donizetti’s Dr. Dulcamara. Medical Problems of Performing Artists 2(4), 145-151 (1987). 5. Roberts R.M.: Serendipity: accidental discoveries in science. Wiley, New York (1989). 6. Skågeby, J.: The irony of serendipity. Library Hi Tech 30(2), 321-334 (2012). 7. Diaz de Chumaceiro, C.L.: Serendipity or pseudoserendipity? unexpected versus desired results. The Journal of Creative Behavior 29, 143–147 (1995). 8. Liu, C., de Rond, M.: Good night, and good luck: perspectives on luck in management scholarship. The Academy of Management Annals 10(1), 409-451 (2016). 9. Boyd, W.: Armadillo. Penguin Books, London (1998). 10. Christodoulou, Y., Papada, E., Papoutsi, A., Vradis, A.: Crisis or zemblanity? viewing the 'migration crisis' through a Greek lens. Mediterranean Politics 21(2), 321-325 (2016). 11. Merton, R.K., Barber, E.: The travels and adventures of serendipity. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2004). 12. Solomon, Y., Bronstein, J.: Serendipity in legal information seeking behaviour: chance encounters of family-law advocates with court rulings. Aslib Journal of Information Management 68(1), 112-134 (2016). 13. Grout, J.D., Williams, H.W.: A short history of opera. 4th edn. Columbia University Press, New-York (2003).
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