Tristram Shandy (opera) Tristram Shandy (opera) Tristram Shandy is an unfinished opera project by Michael Nyman based on his favorite novel, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman", by Laurence Sterne, begun in 1981. The project has been perpetually on hold for want of a commission, but at least five excerpts of the opera have been performed publicly, and one has been released on a commercial recording. The first excerpt of the opera appeared in 1983: "I'll Stake My Cremona to a Jew's Trump," (from Volume V, Chapter 15) which appeared in an eponymous short documentary by Sara Jolly. It was written
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (by José Paulo Paes, 1984), Catalan (by Joaquim Mallafré, 1993), Norwegian (by Bjørn Herrman, 1995–96), Finnish (by Kersti Juva, 1998). Well known in philosophy and mathematics, the so-called "paradox of Tristram Shandy" was introduced by Bertrand Russell in his book "The Principles of Mathematics" to evidentiate the inner contradictions that arise from the assumption that infinite sets can have the same cardinality—as would be the case with a gentleman who spends one year to write the story of one day of his life, if he were able to write for an infinite length of time. The paradox depends upon the