Music-Genres & Styles-Opera

These 301 letters between Giuseppe Verdi and his last, most gifted librettist, Arrigo Boito, document an extraordinary chapter in musical history. Now available for the first time in English, this correspondence records both a unique friendship and its creative legacy. This new edition of...

Though some dismiss opera as old-fashioned, it shows no sign of disappearing from the world's stage. So why do audiences continue to flock to it? Given its association with wealth, one might imagine that opera tickets function as a status symbol. But while a...

Since the release of Wayne Koestenbaum's book, The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire, gender studies has begun to take an active interest in music. Opera, long viewed as strictly an establishment tradition, has in particular been given a second look...

In this first detailed study of seventeenth-century sepolcri--sacred operas written for court performance on Holy Thursday and Good Friday--Robert L. Kendrick delves into the political and artistic world of Habsburg Vienna, in which music and ritual combined on the stage to produce a thoroughly...

Dreaming with Open Eyes examines visual symbolism in late seventeenth-century Italian opera, contextualizing the genre amid the broad ocularcentric debates emerging at the crossroads of the early modern period and the Enlightenment. Ayana O. Smith reevaluates significant aspects of the Arcadian reform aesthetic and...

Singing princesses from tall towers, temper tantrums gone awry, unconventional love affairs, and shepherds who can't catch a break are just a few of many things you'll find within the operas and ballets of Debussy, Dukas, and Ravel. This edition combines volumes 2 and...

Scholars have long recognized Carl Maria von Weber as the father of the German Romantic and Nationalist music. The success of his opera Der Freisch?z almost single handedly brought German operatic style onto the world stage, competing with and challenging established operatic traditions in...

Young offers a marvelous account of the 150 years of successes and failures by a great many people and diverse organizations striving to create appreciative audiences for opera in Denver. (Music)Author: Allen YoungISBN-10: 0974959782ISBN-13: 9780974959788Publisher: Pilgrims' ProcessLanguage: EnglishPublished: 05/15/2006Pages: 252Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.82lbsSize: 9.00h x...

Franco Alfano: Transcending Turandot is the first fully documented biography in any language of Italy's last verismo composer, Franco Alfano (1875-1954), the composer chosen to complete Giacomo Puccini's swansong, Turandot, in 1924. Alfano remains one of the most undervalued composers, despite arguably representing the...

The transition from silent to synchronized sound film was one of the most dramatic transformations in cinema's history, as it radically changed the technology, practices, and aesthetics of filmmaking within a few short years. In France, debates about sound cinema were fierce and widespread....

Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's most celebrated collaboration, the landmark opera Einstein on the Beach, had its premiere at the Avignon Festival in 1976. During its initial European tour, Metropolitan Opera premiere, and revivals in 1984 and 1992, Einstein provoked opposed reactions from both...

These essays illuminate the changing nature of text-music relationships from the time of Petrarch to Guarini and, in music, from the madrigals of Giovanni da Cascia to those of Gesualdo da Venosa. Haar traces a line of development from the stylized rhetoric of Trecento...

These essays illuminate the changing nature of text-music relationships from the time of Petrarch to Guarini and, in music, from the madrigals of Giovanni da Cascia to those of Gesualdo da Venosa. Haar traces a line of development from the stylized rhetoric of Trecento...

Franco Alfano: Transcending Turandot is the first fully documented biography in any language of Italy's last verismo composer, Franco Alfano (1875-1954), the composer chosen to complete Giacomo Puccini's swansong, Turandot, in 1924. Alfano remains one of the most undervalued composers, despite arguably representing the...

Winner of the 2007 Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society and the 2007 Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. Divas and Scholars is a dazzling and beguiling account of how opera comes to the stage, filled...

In this colorful and detailed history, Joshua Goldstein describes the formation of the Peking opera in late Qing and its subsequent rise and re-creation as the epitome of the Chinese national culture in Republican era China. Providing a fascinating look into the lives of...

English Dramatick Opera, 1661-1706 is the first comprehensive examination of the distinctively English form known as "dramatick opera", which appeared on the London stage in the mid-1670s and lasted until its displacement by Italian through-composed opera in the first decade of the eighteenth century....

'Wagner's art refuses to stand still, declines to play by the rules and will not observe any of the social graces'What is it that makes Wagner's art so endlessly powerful? So influential, seductive and repellent? So simultaneously creative and destructive? And why does it...

With this handy dual-language volume, students of Italian can improve their knowledge of the language while enjoying the passion and poetry of some of the most famous arias ever written. Included are 141 arias from 29 operas by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Donizetti, Bellini, and...

Composed in 1906-1908 to a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Elektra scandalized audiences of the day with its horrific retelling of the Greek story and its startling level of dissonance. Today, with the shock of the new worn off and the once-fearful dissonance now...

This is the complete orchestral and vocal score of Mozart's Don Giovanni, considered by many to be the greatest opera ever written. This edition contains all the music Mozart wrote for Don Giovanni, both for the original version performed in Prague (1787) and the...

Feasting and Fasting in Opera shows that the consumption of food and drink is an essential component of opera, both on and off stage. In this book, opera scholar Pierpaolo Polzonetti explores how convivial culture shaped the birth of opera and opera-going rituals until...

Based on the play by Schiller about tragic love and intrigue at the court of Philip II of Spain, Don Carlos is among the most complex and challenging of Verdi's works. The composer revised the opera twice in the 20 years following its 1867...

The plays of Shakespeare inspired Verdi's deepest resources. Macbeth (1847) was one of the composer's earliest operatic-dramatic triumphs and Otello (1887) was among his latest. At the end of his life Verdi astonished a public accustomed to his tragic fervor with Falstaff, a gem...

Winner of the 2007 Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society and the 2007 Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.Divas and Scholars is a dazzling and beguiling account of how opera comes to the stage, filled with...

A collection of seven chapters on Lorenzo Da Ponte's Memorie and his librettos L'arbore di Diana (for Vicente Mart? y Soler) and Don Giovanni (for Mozart), the texts are studied as radical works of the Late Enlightenment inspired by Rousseau's socio-political thinking. Author: Felicity...

His exceptional good looks made him a matinee idol, and Franco Corelli - the Prince of Tenors - was dubbed "Mr. Soldout" for 20 consecutive years. In 1958, just seven years after beginning his career, he was already the highest-paid tenor in Italy. Following...

Drawing on the personal recollections of the Caruso brothers, archival material preserved by the family, and extensive research, this book is a rare tribute to to the man and his vocal legacy. This abridged edition includes the full original text covering Caruso's life and...

For more than 100 years, Vancouver has been home to a vibrant and thriving Cantonese opera scene. As a performance art carried out by transient troupes, it is an ephemeral medium that rarely leaves a trace in the historic records. However, an extraordinary treasure...

Ernani - A tragic opera in four acts is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1890. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres....

Author: Giuseppe VerdiISBN-10: 0793570131ISBN-13: 9780793570133Publisher: G. Schirmer, Inc.Language: EnglishPublished: 11/01/1986Pages: 68Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.35lbsSize: 10.30h x 6.50w x 0.60d

For well over twenty years, M. Owen Lee has been offering intermission talks during the Saturday afternoon Texaco Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, which now reach countries on six continents. In this book, Father Lee covers various operas of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and Richard Strauss,...

The founding in 1777 of the Journal de Paris, France's first daily and distinctly commercial paper, represents an early use of disinformation as a tool for political gain, profit, and societal division. To attract a large readership and bar competition for C.W. Gluck's works...

For Astrid Varnay, opera was the family business. The daughter of coloratura soprano M ria J vor and dramatic tenor Alexander V rnay, she literally grew up backstage at the opera. Vocally and musically trained by her mother and mentor (and later husband) Hermann...

The first-ever biography of Richard Wagner's artistically gifted granddaughter who fought against Hitler's Germany but achieved no personal success for her troubles. She was not the 'black sheep' of her family, as often claimed, but a heroic rebel. Friedelind Wagner (1918-1991), Richard Wagner's independent-minded...

French Vocal Literature introduces singers to the history and performance concerns of a vast body of French songs from the sixteenth century to the present, focusing on songs for solo voice or small vocal ensemble with piano or organ accompaniment suitable for recital, concert,...

In Experiencing Tchaikovsky: A Listener's Companion, historian and scholar David Schroeder looks beyond traditional views of Tchaikovsky to explore the dramatic impact of his music by walking readers through the remarkable range of works by this great Russian composer.Author: David SchroederISBN-10: 1442232994ISBN-13: 9781442232990Publisher: Rowman...

Embodying Voice: Singing Verdi, Singing Wagner articulates the process of developing an operatic voice, explaining how and why the training of such a voice is as complex and sophisticated as it is mysterious. This book illustrates how putting together a voice, embodying a sound,...

During the July Monarchy, French grand operas, with their plots drawn from historical events, tended to be received as metaphors for current political themes. Previous studies have usually underestimated the role of music and the visual dimensions in articulating an alternative message to that...

This new imprint is established to publish in paperback for an individual readership the Press's most outstanding original monographs. These are titles that would normally appear only in hardback editions for specialists, but whose quality and general academic importance justify their special promotion in...

One of the last works of German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), the oratorio Elijah was first performed at England's Birmingham Festival in August 1846. Elated by the audience's response, Mendelssohn wrote jubilantly to his brother: "Not less than four choruses and four airs were...

Hyland reveals both the man and his creations, revealing how Gershwin became the first composer to apply popular music to classical forms, how his work reflected the turmoil of America in the Jazz Age, and how, despite his fame, he never achieved the happiness...

A behind-the-scenes look at the premieres of five extraordinary operas What was it like at the opening night of Mozart's Don Giovanni or Wagner's Das Rheingold? This glittering introduction to the world of opera takes us behind the scenes during premiere performances of five...

Without scenery, costumes, and stage action, an opera would be little more than a concert. But in the audience, we know little (and think less) about the enormous efforts of those involved in bringing an opera to life--by the stagehands who shift scenery, the...

This classic French tale of love and honor comes to life in Walter Damrosch's celebrated opera. With its soaring melodies and dramatic lyrics, Cyrano is a masterpiece of the operatic genre, capturing the passion and pathos of 17th century France in vivid detail. From...

A full account of the making, during 1909-10, of Der Rosenkavalier with emphasis on its derivation from a French op駻ette of 1907, L'Ingenu libertin. L'Ingenu libertin was seen in Paris by Count Harry Kessler and formed the basis of the opera then to be...

Die Zauberfl te ist eine Oper in zwei Aufz gen, die 1791 im Freihaustheater in Wien uraufgef hrt wurde. Das Libretto stammt von Emanuel Schikaneder, die Musik komponierte Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Zur Handlung: Der junge Prinz Tamino wird von der K nigin der Nacht...

First performed in Berlin in 1821, Der Freisch?z is recognized as the wellspring of German Romantic opera. It was immensely influential in subject matter, atmosphere, orchestration, and other aspects on all later German operatic writing, and it is still quite popular.The composition of Der...

Published in 1913, Thomas Mann's Death in Venice is one of the most widely read novellas in any language. In the 1970s, Benjamin Britten adapted it into an opera, and Luchino Visconti turned it into a successful film. Reading these works from a philosophical...

In a famous Parisian chess café, a down-and-out, HIM, accosts a former acquaintance, ME, who has made good, more or less. They talk about chess, about genius, about good and evil, about music, they gossip about the society in which they move, one of...