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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Theatre, drama > Opera
Verdi's enduring presence on the opera stages of the world and as a
subject for study by scholars in various disciplines has placed him
as a central figure within modern culture. His operas, including La
traviata, Rigoletto and Aida, are among the most frequently
performed worldwide and his popularity from the mid-nineteenth
century to the present day is undisputed. The Cambridge Verdi
Encyclopedia covers all aspects of Verdi's life, his music and his
world. Appendices list Verdi's known works, both published and
unpublished, the characters in his operas and the singers who
created them, and a chronology of his life. As a starting point for
information on specific works, people, places and concepts
associated with Verdi, the Encyclopedia reflects the very latest
scholarship, presented by an international array of experts and
will have a broad appeal for opera lovers, students and scholars.
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881). The
work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg,
Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered
his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov,
who reigned as Tsar (1598 to 1605) during the Time of Troubles, and
his nemesis, the False Dmitriy (reigned 1605 to 1606). The
Russian-language libretto was written by the composer, and is based
on the "dramatic chronicle" Boris Godunov by Aleksandr Pushkin,
and, in the Revised Version of 1872, on Nikolay Karamzin's History
of the Russian State.
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book
may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages,
poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the
original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We
believe this work is culturally important, and despite the
imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of
our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works
worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in
the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields
in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as
an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification:
++++ Lucrecia Borgia: Melodrama En Tres Actos Gaetano Donizetti T.
gorchs, 1862
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book
may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages,
poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the
original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We
believe this work is culturally important, and despite the
imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of
our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works
worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in
the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields
in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as
an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification:
++++ La Favorita: Opera En Cuatro Actos Gaetano Donizetti S.
Oliveres, 1855
In Opera at the Bandstand: Then and Now, George W. Martin surveys
the role of concert bands during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries in making contemporary opera popular. He also chronicles
how in part they lost their audience in the second half of the
twentieth century by abandoning operatic repertory. Martin begins
with the Dodworth bands in New York City from the 1850s and moves
to the American tour of French conductor and composer Louis Antoine
Jullien, bandmaster Patrick S. Gilmore's jubilee festivals, the era
of John Philip Sousa from 1892 to 1932, performances of the Goldman
Band of New York City from 1920 to 2005, and finally the wind
ensembles sparked by Frederick Fennell. He illustrates the degree
to which operatic material comprised these bands' overall repertory
and provides detailed programs in the appendixes. Opera at the
Bandstand describes how the technological advancements sweeping the
country, such as radio, automobiles, recordings, television, and
air conditioning, along with changes in demographics, affected the
country's musical life. It will appeal to bandmasters and their
players, as well as those with an interest in American history,
music, popular culture, and opera.
Commissioned by the enterprising actor-manager John Rich, Covent
Garden's Theatre Royal first opened its doors in December 1732.
Principally a playhouse during its first century, the venue has had
an eventful history involving two disastrous fires and riots over
ticket prices. Most notably, it hosted Handel's incomparable operas
and oratorios, and was where he presented regular seasons from 1735
until his death in 1759. Not until 1847, under Michael Costa, did
the theatre dedicate itself to opera, and in 1892 it received the
name by which it is known today: the Royal Opera House. Secretary
of the Guildhall School of Music from 1901 to 1935, Henry Saxe
Wyndham (1867 1940) published this richly illustrated two-volume
account in 1906, celebrating the venue's legendary personalities
and productions. Volume 1 covers the period 1732 to 1819 and
includes discussion of John Rich, John Philip Kemble, Sarah
Siddons, and Handel's operas."
Commissioned by the enterprising actor-manager John Rich, Covent
Garden's Theatre Royal first opened its doors in December 1732.
Principally a playhouse during its first century, the venue has had
an eventful history involving two disastrous fires and riots over
ticket prices. Most notably, it hosted Handel's incomparable operas
and oratorios, and was where he presented regular seasons from 1735
until his death in 1759. Not until 1847, under Michael Costa, did
the theatre dedicate itself to opera, and in 1892 it received the
name by which it is known today: the Royal Opera House. Secretary
of the Guildhall School of Music from 1901 to 1935, Henry Saxe
Wyndham (1867 1940) published this richly illustrated two-volume
account in 1906, celebrating the venue's legendary personalities
and productions. Volume 2 covers the period 1819 to 1897 and
includes appendices which list principal events and managers."
Verdi's operas - composed between 1839 and 1893 - portray a
striking diversity of female protagonists: warrior women and
peacemakers, virgins and courtesans, princesses and slaves, witches
and gypsies, mothers and daughters, erring and idealised wives,
and, last of all, a feisty quartet of Tudor townswomen in Verdi's
final opera, Falstaff. Yet what meanings did the impassioned crises
and dilemmas of these characters hold for the nineteenth-century
female spectator, especially during such a turbulent span in the
history of the Italian peninsula? How was opera shaped by society -
and was society similarly influenced by opera? Contextualising
Verdi's female roles within aspects of women's social, cultural and
political history, Susan Rutherford explores the interface between
the reality of the spectators' lives and the imaginary of the
fictional world before them on the operatic stage.
Sentimental Opera is a study of the relationship between opera and
two major phenomena of eighteenth-century European culture - the
cult of sensibility and the emergence of bourgeois drama. A
thorough examination of social and cultural contexts helps to
explain the success of operas such as Paisiello's Nina as well as
the extreme emotional reactions of their audiences. Like their
counterparts in drama, literature and painting, these works brought
to the fore serious contemporary problems including the widespread
execution of deserters, the treatment of the insane, and anxieties
relative to social and familial roles. They also developed a
specifically operatic version of the dominant language of
sensibility. This wide-ranging study involves such major cultural
figures as Goldoni, Diderot and Mozart, while refining our
understanding of the theatrical genre system of their time.
Ombra is the term which applies to an operatic scene involving the
appearance of an oracle or demon, witches, or ghosts. Such scenes
can be traced back to the early days of opera and were commonplace
in the seventeenth century in Italy and France. Operas based on the
legends of Orpheus, Iphigenia, and Alcestis provide numerous
examples of ombra and extend well into the eighteenth century.
Clive McClelland's Ombra: Supernatural Music in the Eighteenth
Century is an in-depth examination of ombra and is many influences
on classical music performance. McClelland reveals that ombra
scenes proved popular with audiences not only because of the
special stage effects employed, but also due to increasing use of
awe-inspiring musical effects. By the end of the eighteenth century
the scenes had come to be associated with an elaborate set of
musical features including slow, sustained writing, the use of flat
keys, angular melodic lines, chromaticism and dissonance, dotted
rhythms and syncopation, tremolando effects, unexpected harmonic
progressions, and unusual instrumentation, especially involving
trombones. It is clearly distinct from other styles that exhibit
some of these characteristics, such as the so-called 'Sturm und
Drang' or 'Fantasia.' Futhermore, parallels can be drawn between
these features and Edmund Burke's 'sublime of terror,' thus placing
ombra music on an important position in the context of
eighteenth-century aesthetic theory.
Marie-Henri Beyle (1783 1842), better known by his pen name
Stendhal, is remembered today for such novels as Le Rouge et le
Noir. Over the course of his life, he wrote in a variety of
literary genres and under a multitude of names, or anonymously.
Reissued here is the 1824 English translation of his Vie de Rossini
of the same year, which was accused of being partly plagiarised
from Giuseppe Carpani's Le Rossiniane, following similar claims
regarding his biographies of Haydn and Mozart (which are also
reissued together in translation in this series). Best known for
William Tell and The Barber of Seville, Gioachino Rossini (1792
1868) was by far the most popular opera composer of his day, adored
by his public. Colourful, vigorous and forthright, Stendhal's
brilliant though somewhat unreliable biography offers an
opinionated contemporary critique of 'Signor Crescendo'.
Opera has been around ever since the late 16th century, and it is
still going strong in the sense that operas are performed around
the world at present, and known by infinitely more persons than
just those who attend performances. On the other hand, it has
enjoyed periods in the past when more operas were produced to
greater acclaim. Those periods inevitably have pride of place in
this Historical Dictionary of Opera, as do exceptional singers, and
others who combine to fashion the opera, whether or not they appear
on stage. But this volume looks even further afield, considering
the cities which were and still are opera centers, literary works
which were turned into librettos, and types of pieces and genres.
While some of the former can be found on the web or in other
sources, most of the latter cannot and it is impossible to have the
whole picture without them. Indeed, this book has an amazingly
broad scope. The dictionary section, with about 340 entries, covers
the topics mentioned above but obviously focuses most on composers,
not just the likes of Mozart, Verdi and Wagner, but others who are
scarcely remembered but made notable contributions. Of course,
there are the divas, but others singers as well, and some of the
most familiar operas, Don Giovanni, Tosca and more. Technical terms
also abound, and reference to different genres, from antimasque to
zarzuela. Since opera has been around so long, the chronology is
rather lengthy, since it has a lot of ground to cover, and the
introduction sets the scene for the rest. This book should not be
an end but rather a beginning, so it has a substantial bibliography
for readers seeking more specific or specialized works. It is an
excellent access point for readers interested in opera.
La musica napoletana conosce uno straordinario successo europeo fin
dai primi decenni del Settecento. I contributi raccolti in questo
volume presentano le fonti e la fortuna dei Napoletani, e di
Pergolesi in particolare, a Dresda, in Boemia e in Slesia. Le fonti
pergolesiane vengono esaminate fin nei dettagli di scrittura, tanto
in vista della nuova edizione critica quanto nella prospettiva
della prassi esecutiva storicamente informata. La corrispondenza
diplomatica tra Dresda e Napoli si rivela un canale ricchissimo di
scambi di informazioni e di partiture. Lontano dalla corte sassone,
per la diffusione della musica napoletana giocano un ruolo
essenziale alcune famiglie nobiliari boeme. Le case di ordini
religiosi (cistercensi, gesuiti) si scambiano tra Boemia e Slesia
moltissime composizioni sacre, variamente adattate secondo i
bisogni locali. Le opere napoletane sono popolarizzate dalle
compagnie girovaghe di cantanti, che solitamente provengono
dall'Italia settentrionale. Nuovi elementi biografici e analisi di
opere arricchiscono la nostra conoscenza di conterranei o
contemporanei di Pergolesi come Giovanni Alberto Ristori, Nicola
Porpora, Domenico de Micco e Leonardo Leo. Neapolitan music enjoyed
an extraordinary European success starting with the first decades
of the 18th century. The contributions to the present volume
illustrate the sources and the reception of the Neapolitans, and
foremost of Pergolesi, in Dresden, in Bohemia and in Silesia.
Pergolesi sources are described down to details of writing, with an
eye both to the new critical edition and to historically informed
performing practice. Diplomatical correspondence between Dresden
and Naples was widely used as a source of musical information and a
means of exchanging scores. Far from the Saxon court, the
Neapolitan music is encouraged by some prominent Bohemian
aristocrats. Different religious houses (cistercians, jesuits)
exchange sacred music, variously adapted to local needs. Neapolitan
opera is popularised through wandering troupes, coming mostly from
Northern Italy. New biographical data and work analyses enrich our
knowledge of contemporaries or fellow countrymen of Pergolesi's
such as Giovanni Alberto Ristori, Nicola Porpora, Domenico de Micco
and Leonardo Leo.
The American music critic and lecturer William James Henderson
(1855 1937) wrote for The New York Times and The New York Sun,
provided the libretto for Walter Damrosch's opera Cyrano (1913) and
authored fiction, poetry, sea stories and a textbook on navigation.
He also taught at the New York College of Music and the Institute
of Musical Art. Taking up the cause of Wagner with considerable
understanding, he published this substantial work in 1902, barely
twenty years after the composer's death. It is an illuminating
account of Wagner's life and artistic aims, complemented by an
insightful analysis of each of his music dramas from Rienzi to
Parsifal. Its purpose, states Henderson, 'is to supply Wagner
lovers with a single work which shall meet all their needs'. With
Ernest Newman's Study of Wagner (1899), also reissued in this
series, it reflects the composer's contemporary popularity.
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