Peschel E, Peschel R
Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Yale J Biol Med. 1992 May-Jun;65(3):189-200.
The composer Gaetano Donizetti, who died in a state of mental derangement due to neurosyphilis, created some of opera's greatest scenes of psychosis. His letters reveal the clinical progression of his neurobiological illness, which was confirmed by autopsy. One can hypothesize that the composer's brain disease, which led to his psychosis and death, may have had an influence on his ability to create the powerful and unforgettable scenes of psychosis in his operas. In Anna Bolena, he captured in musical and dramatic terms Anne Boleyn's historically corroborated mental disorder during her imprisonment in the Tower of London. Sixteen years after having composed Anna Bolena, Donizetti himself would be locked up, against his will, in a mental institution. In Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti portrayed a girl given to hallucinations who, in her unforgettable "mad" scene, comes on stage, a pathetic embodiment of a human being in the throes of psychosis. Thirteen years after Lucia's première, Donizetti would die, psychotic and paralyzed, of untreated neurosyphilis. Studying Donizetti's neurosyphilis and the portrayals of psychosis in his operas can help one to appreciate the pain of human beings trapped in the prison of a brain subjected to the devastation of mental derangement.
作曲家盖塔诺·多尼采蒂因神经梅毒死于精神错乱状态，他创作了一些歌剧中最伟大的精神错乱场景。他的信件揭示了他神经生物学疾病的临床进展，尸检证实了这一点。可以推测，导致他精神错乱和死亡的脑部疾病，可能影响了他在歌剧中创作强大且令人难忘的精神错乱场景的能力。在《安娜·博莱娜》中，他用音乐和戏剧的方式捕捉到了安妮·博林在伦敦塔被囚禁期间经历史证实的精神障碍。在创作《安娜·博莱娜》十六年后，多尼采蒂本人违背自己的意愿被关进了精神病院。在《拉美莫尔的露琪亚》中，多尼采蒂刻画了一个产生幻觉的女孩，在她令人难忘的“疯癫”场景中，她走上舞台，是一个处于精神错乱痛苦中的可怜人类化身。在《露琪亚》首演十三年后，多尼采蒂将死于未经治疗的神经梅毒，当时他精神错乱且瘫痪。研究多尼采蒂的神经梅毒以及他歌剧中对精神错乱的描绘，有助于人们理解被困在遭受精神错乱破坏的大脑牢笼中的人类的痛苦。
