Struggle Between Spirit And Flesh

With the aid of a variety of the musicology method, this thesis aims to take the opera Thais, using, written by the 19 thcentury French composer Massenet, as the research object to interpret the implication and purpose of the opera based on noumenon analysis of music with the idea “music carries drama" advocated by the American musicologist Joseph Coleman,at the same time, I have used various of ways to research, like noumenon of musicology,contrast of different texts, history hermeneutics of music and musical semiotics. The theme, struggling between spirit and flesh illustrated by the opera, is discussed from different angles, such as noumenon of musicology, the development of Christian culture and so on,reflecting the eternal religious theme----struggling between spirit and flesh. By my analysis, the character of figures and the description of important senses could be realized,and then discussed the humanistic connotation of the opera.