word: supererogation
In his search for the source of Walt Whitman’s oracular verse Gary Schmidgall believes he has found in it opera. Whitman was a big opera queen! Schmidgall makes a good case — it’s certainly fun to read. The opera singer who had the greatest impact was an Italian named Marietta Alboni. Schmidgall quotes Whitman rhapsodizing over Alboni many times, even decades after her year in America. But Schmidgall also provides plenty of contemporary critical praise by other authors, from the dignified — “power, strength, and volume” — to the sensuous — “bubbling, gurgling, gushing” — to this bon mot combining the audience’s experience of the pre-air-conditioned summer theater of New York and the joyous reaction to the diva, “Men dissolved in rapture and perspiration simultaneously.”
Context for today’s word:
“‘The fame of this great artist is so thoroughly established in this City, and her performances so equal in their perfection,’ wrote Curtis in the Tribune, ‘that criticism has become almost a work of supererogation.’”
definition (Merriam-Webster): the act of performing more than is required by duty, obligation, or need
source:
Walt Whitman: a gay life
by Gary Schmidgall
1997. A William Abrahams Book, Dutton/Penguin Putnam, New York
