L1: Poisons in the opera: from love potions and witch ointments to deadly Solanaceae

Abstract

Introduction Scopolamine and hyoscyamine (atropine) are the main alkaloids of most Solanaceae plants, which have been used within living memory as healthful, hallucinogenic, and/or eroticizing, but also deadly drugs. These effects have been described over the centuries in arts from ancient mosaics to Dali, in literature from Homer to Goethe, and in operas from Vivaldi to Gounod and Wagner. Methods Story and music of operas were analyzed concerning action of drugs and poisons in the context of drug-facilitated sexual assaults, driving under the influence of drugs, crime scene reconstruction, suicide assistance, and the eroticizing effect of Bordeaux vine. Results In Antonio Vivaldi's opera Orlando Furioso, Alcina is attracted to the knight Ruggiero and she uses her magic potion to make him forget Bradamante and love her instead (similar to Siegfried in Wagner's opera Gotterdammerung , who forgot Brunnhilde and fell in love with Gutrune after consumption of her welcome potion). In Charles Gounod's Faust , Faust and Mephistopheles fly to the Harz Mountains to get the love potion to change his life without any fun. At the Walpurgis Night, he got to know the three typical optical hallucinogenic effects of scopolamine and hyoscyamine, imagination of flying, transformation into animals, and eroticizing effects. In Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet , Hamlet reconstructs the homicide of his father by his uncle who dropped poison into his ear. In Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde , Isolde's maid Brangane should give Tristan and Isolde the deadly potion to atone for their fault, but she gave them the lower dosed love potion. Thus, both fell again in love although she was engaged to Tristan's king. Finally, in Gaetano Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore , the poor Nemorino loves the beautiful Adina, but she torments him with her indifference. When Adina is reading the book of Tristan and Isolde to her friends, Nemorino decides to buy a love potion from the travelling quack doctor Dulcamara. His name comes from the only Solanaceae ( Solanum dulcamara ) that contains no scopolamine and hyoscyamine… Conclusion The effect of poisons inspired artists, writers and composers over the centuries. With the view of a toxicologist, many effects can be related and allow funny conclusions. Some of them will be presented during the opening lecture at the Opera de Bordeaux ( “lieu prestigieux oblige” ).