Physicians, Charlatans, Healers, and Apothecaries in Operas

Abstract

Although stiffened in a fixed stereotype, the figure of the doctor appears quite frequently in opera between the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. He usually belongs to a medium–high social status with a high standard of living, often highlighted by his clothing which, in addition to being an emblematic sign of the profession, also shows the unequivocal economic wealth he enjoys. The latter expression is more of the skillful self-protection capacity of one’s own state than of professional capacity. Indeed, there is little recognition of the social value of his work and of his professional skills.

The doctor is almost always unable to formulate a valid diagnosis and to propose effective therapies. Indeed, in melodrama medicine is often perceived and conceived more as the work of barkers than of skilled professionals. For this reason, the figures of charlatans who propose empirical remedies abound, often also as an alternative to the preparations of the apothecaries and the “courtly” therapies of the doctors. The doctrinal background of doctors is often less effective and efficient than the common sense that simple and humble people are able to put in place to resolve health situations. The consultation is emblematic of the incapacity and inconclusiveness of doctors (and the maximum target of satire), a situation in which several doctors find themselves at the sick bed without ever agreeing on the diagnosis and therapy, indeed often arguing over which decision to take.

Doctors, apothecaries, and charlatans, often united in a single not so noble vision of the art of care, will remain for decades among the most well-known and “exploited” characters in the lyric field to show the limits of a medicine still unable to act as a scientific discipline capable of addressing and solving health challenges.