The musical theatre of Stephen Sondheim probes deeply into the most disturbing issues of contemporary life. By challenging his audience with intricate music, biting wit, and profound themes, he flouts the traditional wisdom of the musical theatre. Tracing Sondheim's career from his initial success as lyricist for "West Side Story" and "Gypsy" to his most recent work - "Into the Woods" and "Assassins" - Joanne Gordon emphasizes not only the disturbing content of Sondheim's work, but his innovative use of form. In shows such as "A Little Night Music", "Sweeney Todd", and "Sunday in the Park with George", Sondheim's music and lyrics are inextricably woven into the fabric of the entire work.

"Of the greatest significance ...The first volume of George Perle's two volume study on the two operas of Alban Berg ...is one of those few works of scholarship and analysis you can label 'definitive'; it may in time be supplemented, but not superseded."--Richard Dyer, Boston Sunday Globe "It is difficult to see how Professor Perle's exhaustive study can ever be superseded...or how such future work as may appear can do anything but add new details to his exposition of the basic clements of the work's musical language...After twenty years' work on the composer he brings to this study of Wozzeck not only a penetrating analytical mind, great scholarship and a comprehensive knowledge of the music but an almost uncanny insight into what seem to be the inner workings of Berg's mind."--Douglas Jarman, Music and Letters "If you have ever had any questions about Berg's opera Wozzeck, Mr. Perle probably answers them for you in The Operas of Alban Berg: Volume One/Wozzeck...An indispensable work on Berg's life as reflected in his work." --Donal Hcnahan, The New York Times "As with Perle's previous books, one notes with pleasure how well written is this one, how simultaneously economical and comfortable the prose, even when the subject is as complex and manifold as Wozzeck."--Mark DeVoto, Music Library Association Notes "A great and unique contribution ...[Perle] is a leading authority on Berg, and his analysis of Berg's compositional methods in the two operas is likely to be definitive."--George Martin, The Opera Quarterly "George Perle has contributed more than anyone of any nationality to a true understanding of Berg's music."--Douglass Green, Journal of Music Theory "George Perle ...possesses the kind of complete credential required for this study. [Volume I: Wozzeck] is a model of scholarly writing. Every paragraph, each quoted music example, each analysis moves the argument forward in a clear incisive manner ...Essential reading for the serious student of the music of Alban Berg."--Choice

New in Paperback! This book supplies a soprano with nearly everything she may need to perform the operatic arias discussed. The 28 arias included are chosen from among those that are more popular and most widely studied and performed. There are descriptions of stage settings, with costume sketches by famed theatrical designer Leo Van Witsen. The heart of each discussion is a detailed descriptions of the sections of the area. While the scenic design may change from one production to another, the suggestions given for dramatic motivations, character building, and stage movement can be readily adapted for use in any theatrical environment. Although it is not intended that these arias be acted out on the concert stage, much of the information the dramatic analysis, discussions of vocal and musical aspects, matters of style and tradition, and translations of the texts should be profitable for students of singing and stage direction, as well as professional opera singers, no matter how or where the arias are performed. Paperback edition available June 2001. Cloth edition previously published in 1990.

"The first volume of Perle's magnificent study focused on Wozuck ...Its successor, equally painstaking and perceptive, is if anything more invaluable, for the clouds of mystery around Berg's second opera are only now beginning to disperse, and the work is coming to be regarded properly as the climax of the composer's achievement." (Andrew Clements, Opera). "Perle's books have laid the groundwork for a thorough exploration of the remarkably successful ways in which Berg was able to marry a powerful intellectual grasp of a richly developing language to an instinctive feel for dramatic shape, a process that marks him out as one of the few genuine opera composers this century." (Michael Taylor, Music and Letters). "The first volume, Wozzeck ...was universally recognized as being a work of outstanding scholarship. The Lulu volume is an even more impressive achievement. In its analytical sophistication, its critical insights and in the implications which it has for our understanding not only of Berg but of a whole body of post-diatonic music, Perle's Lulu is one of the most exciting and important books on music to appear for many years." (Douglas Jarman, Times Literary Supplement). "With the second of his books on The Operas of Alban Berg, this American musicologist and composer has now taken advantage of all this new material to consolidate his own research and present us with the most sophisticated musical analysis yet made of the composer ...As Perle shows, Lulu represents the highest point of development in Berg's music from the point of view of ambiguity of fabrication." (Stephen Reeve, Classical Music). "Nothing I've read in the past year makes as important a contribution to this literature as The Operas of Alban Berg: Volume Two: Lulu ...Perle's saga of the opera's release from partial captivity reads like one of the great intellectual detective stories of our era ...What emerges most flavorfully is Perle's portrait of a haunted artist who imbued his later works with concealed autobiographical gestures, including his longtime love affair with a Prague matron." (Ailan Ulrich, San Francisco Focus). "The goal of the two-volume work is not merely to dwell in detail on the operas themselves, but to give some account of Berg's other music, in order to set the operas in the context of his complete output. With a composer like Berg, whose music is intimately bound up with his own personal life, such an approach is particularly appropriate ...George Perle has given the world two volumes which will remain at the top of their field for many years to come." (Douglass M. Green, Journal of the American Musicological Society).

Wye Jamison Allanbrook's widely influential Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart challenges the view that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's music was a "pure play" of key and theme, more abstract than that of his predecessors. Allanbrook's innovative work shows that Mozart used a vocabulary of symbolic gestures and musical rhythms to reveal the nature of his characters and their interrelations. The dance rhythms and meters that pervade his operas conveyed very specific meanings to the audiences of the day.

Among the many introductions to opera, this is perhaps the best. J. Merrill Knapp, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, divides his subject into two parts: In the first, he discusses the structure, production, theatrical conventions, and esthetics of opera; in the second, he features biographies of the major composers and cogent analyses of exemplary qualities in their works. "Opera should have a wide appeal," says Knapp in his Preface. "In the past too many sensible people have associated it with diamond tiaras, exclusive theater boxes, opening night social snobbery, and haughty prima donnas. For more understanding and knowledge are needed to get rid of these past impressions and to prove that opera is both within the comprehension of the ordinary person and worthy of high aspiration and serious study." This book will open ears and change minds. It is the ideal foundation for anyone curious about--or already in love with--the magical world of opera.

While Puccini wrote only twelve operas during a long life--three of them one-acters designed to be performed together--he has to be ranked today as the world's most popular composer of opera. His "La Boheme" and "Tosca" are more frequently performed in the major opera houses than works by other composers, and "Madame Butterfly" and "Manon Lescaut" rank not far behind. What is the explanation for Puccini's enormous success? How do his operas work as music and drama? What was he like to contemporaries such as Verdi, Toscanini, and Caruso? Charles Osborne, author of highly successful "Complete Operas of Verdi" and "Complete Operas of Mozart, " here analyzes the entire Puccini oeuvre--from "Tosca" and "Turandot" to the less-often performed "Edgar, La Fanciulla del West, " and "La Rondine." His fourfold approach--linking biography with musical, textual, and dramatic analysis--is especially valuable for Puccini, who revealed many of his personal contradictions in his music and whose sense of detail can be appreciated by close study of the scores and characters. For the legions of Puccini lovers everywhere, this guide to his life and work can serve as an ideal reference source and opera companion.

Is The Marriage of Figaro just about Figaro? Is Don Giovanni's story the only one-or even the most interesting one-in the opera that bears his name? For generations of critics, historians, and directors, it's Mozart's men who have mattered most. Too often, the female characters have been understood from the male protagonist's point of view or simply reduced on stage (and in print) to paper cutouts from the age of the powdered wig and the tightly cinched corset. It's time to give Mozart's women-and Mozart's multi-dimensional portrayals of feminine character-their due. In this lively book, Kristi Brown-Montesano offers a detailed exploration of the female roles in Mozart's four most frequently performed operas, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, and Die Zauberfloete. Each chapter takes a close look at the music, libretto text, literary sources, and historical factors that give shape to a character, re-evaluating common assumptions and proposing fresh interpretations. Brown-Montesano views each character as the subject of a story, not merely the object of a hero's narrative or the stock figure of convention. From amiable Zerlina, to the awesome Queen of the Night, to calculating Despina, all of Mozart's women have something unique to say. These readings also tackle provocative social, political, and cultural issues, which are used in the operas to define positive and negative images of femininity: revenge, power, seduction, resistance, autonomy, sacrifice, faithfulness, class, maternity, and sisterhood. Keenly aware of the historical gap between the origins of these works and contemporary culture, Brown-Montesano discusses how attitudes about such concepts-past and current-influence our appreciation of these fascinating representations of women.

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2022 "When the world comes to an end," Viennese writer Karl Kraus lamented in 1908, "all the big city orchestras will still be playing The Merry Widow." Viennese operettas like Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow were preeminent cultural texts during the Austro-Hungarian Empire's final years. Alternately hopeful and nihilistic, operetta staged contemporary debates about gender, nationality, and labor. The Operetta Empire delves into this vibrant theatrical culture, whose creators simultaneously sought the respectability of high art and the popularity of low entertainment. Case studies examine works by Lehar, Emmerich Kalman, Oscar Straus, and Leo Fall in light of current musicological conversations about hybridity and middlebrow culture. Demonstrating a thorough mastery of the complex early twentieth-century Viennese cultural scene, and a sympathetic and redemptive critique of a neglected popular genre, Micaela Baranello establishes operetta as an important element of Viennese cultural life-one whose transgressions helped define the musical hierarchies of its day.

This exhibition catalogue traces more than one hundred years of Cantonese opera in Edmonton within the changing dynamics of the Chinese community. It tells a story of life experiences on the Prairies by highlighting the inextricable relationship between Cantonese opera and the Edmonton Chinese community as this cultural practice moves deftly through historical periods between 1890 and 2009. This period has been selected to coincide with the arrival of the first Chinese in Edmonton in 1890 and the inscription of Cantonese opera onto the Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2009. The text brings to life many stories of the struggles and successes of the Chinese in Edmonton, highlighting their resiliency and love of life through the cultural practice of Cantonese opera.

Richard Wagner is one of the most controversial figures in Western cultural history. He revolutionized not only opera but the very concept of art, and his works and ideas have had an immeasurable impact on both the cultural and political landscapes of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From 'absolute music' to 'Zurich' and from 'Theodor Adorno' to 'Hermann Zumpe', the vividly-written entries of The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia have been contributed by recognized authorities and cover a comprehensive range of topics. More than eighty scholars from around the world, representing disciplines from history and philosophy to film studies and medicine, provide fascinating insights into Wagner's life, career and influence. Multiple appendices include listings of Wagner's works, historic productions, recordings and addresses where he lived, to round out a volume that will be an essential and reliable resource for enthusiasts and academics alike.

Unscrupulous, devilishly ambitious and undeniably charismatic, Domenico Barbaja was the most celebrated Italian impresario of the early 1800s and one of the most intriguing characters to dominate the operatic empire of the period. Dubbed the 'Viceroy of Naples', Barbaja managed both the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and La Scala in Milan. He was the influential force behind the careers of a plethora of artists including Vincenzo Bellini, Gioachino Rossini and the great mezzo-soprano Isabella Colbran, who became Barbaja's lover before eventually deserting him to marry Rossini. Most vitally, Barbaja's vision had an irrevocable impact on the history of Italian opera; determined to create a lucrative business, he cultivated an energetic environment of new artists producing innovative, exciting opera that people would flock to hear. Philip Eisenbeiss brilliantly pieces together the forgotten story of a tireless tyrant who began life as a barely educated coffee waiter, yet grew to be one of the richest and most potent men in Italy. A natural entrepreneur, Barbaja had the ability to predict a sensation; a skill he exploited his entire life, forging his fortune as a cafe-owner, arms profiteer, gambling tycoon and eventually, opera magnate. Eisenbeiss unlocks the enigma of this eccentric and fascinating personality that has been hitherto neglected.

Il settimo volume di Studi Pergolesiani/Pergolesi Studies raccoglie le relazioni presentate al convegno "Roma 1735: Pergolesi e l'Olimpiade" tenutosi presso l'Universita "La Sapienza" di Roma il 9-10 settembre del 2010. Il convegno, ideato da Franco Piperno, si inseri nella serie di manifestazioni dedicate a Giovanni Battista Pergolesi nel terzo centenario della nascita. Roma venne individuata come la sede di un tentato lancio dell'astro nascente della musica di scuola napoletana da parte di committenti filo-asburgici. Olimpiade del Metastasio fu il testo drammatico che doveva assecondare questo lancio nei circuiti teatrali italiani ed europei di un musicista fin li affermatosi solo sulla scena partenopea. Ma il progetto falli, probabilmente per il sovrapporsi di contrasti di matrice politica alla capacita della musica pergolesiana di far presa sul gusto del pubblico romano. Questo libro e la felice testimonianza di due fertili giornate di studio in cui un concreto oggetto di teatro musicale e stato sottoposto a disamina da molteplici prospettive disciplinari, con significativi contributi di studiosi di letteratura italiana, storici della lingua, bibliografi e musicologi. Studi Pergolesiani/Pergolesi Studies 7 collects the papers presented at the conference "Roma 1735: Pergolesi e l'Olimpiade" held at "La Sapienza" University of Rome on September 9th-10th, 2010. The conference, conceived by Franco Piperno, was part of a series of events celebrating the third centenary of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's birth. Rome was identified by pro-Habsburg patrons as the starting point of an attempted promotion of the rising star of the Neapolitan school of music. Pergolesi's music for Olimpiade by Metastasio was expected to launch the composer in the Italian and European theatrical circuits since until then he was renown only on the Neapolitan scene. The project failed, probably due to the overlapping of politically motivated conflicts to the ability of the Pergolesi's music to reach Roman audience. This book is the outcome of two fertile days of study in which a concrete object of musical theater was examined from multiple disciplinary perspectives, with significant contributions from scholars of Italian studies, linguistic, bibliography and musicology.

The DVD Book of Pavarotti covers the life of this preeminent opera singer, from his first performances at the age of five, to his parents, to televised concerts he gave singing in stadiums and great open spaces such as La Bombonera in Buenos Aires and Hyde Park.

Any singer longing to have a career in opera, particularly in Europe, should be familiar with the European system of classifying voices know as Fach. The Opera Singer's Career Guide: Understanding the European Fach System presents valuable information to help readers learn, understand, and use the Fach system to their professional advantage. More than just soprano, alto, tenor, or bass, students and professionals alike should know the 25 different Fach categories fully defined here, along with the examples of roles, audition arias, and European opera houses and agents provided. Based on careful research and personal experience, singer and teacher Pearl Yeadon McGinnis describes the features, characteristics, and benefits of the Fach system, including voice categorization and classification and using Fach to train the young voice. She provides practical information on maintaining a career in opera, such as the different types, procedures, and pitfalls of opera auditions; types of opera contracts and contract negotiations; and the value of networking. She explains the different styles of European opera houses and gives an example of life in a state level German opera house, including the various performance spaces, the makeup and responsibilities of an ensemble, and the jobs and functions of opera house personnel. A glossary and several appendixes supply tools for auditioning, such as newly classified roles for Children, Lyric, and Beginner singers; roles for the established Fach categories; lists of opera agents and houses in the German speaking countries; and suggested audition arias by Fach. In addition, practical details are offered about establishing and maintaining residency in Europe, obtaining permission to live and work in Europe, and helpful hints about customs and travel.

Opera developed during a time when the position of women--their rights and freedoms, their virtues and vices, and even the most basic substance of their sexuality--was constantly debated. Many of these controversies manifested themselves in the representation of the historical and mythological women whose voices were heard on the Venetian operatic stage. Drawing upon a complex web of early modern sources and ancient texts, this engaging study is the first comprehensive treatment of women, gender, and sexuality in seventeenth-century opera. Wendy Heller explores the operatic manifestations of female chastity, power, transvestism, androgyny, and desire, showing how the emerging genre was shaped by and infused with the Republic's taste for the erotic and its ambivalent attitudes toward women and sexuality. Heller begins by examining contemporary Venetian writings about gender and sexuality that influenced the development of female vocality in opera. The Venetian reception and transformation of ancient texts--by Ovid, Virgil, Tacitus, and Diodorus Siculus--form the background for her penetrating analyses of the musical and dramatic representation of five extraordinary women as presented in operas by Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli, and their successors in Venice: Dido, queen of Carthage (Cavalli); Octavia, wife of Nero (Monteverdi); the nymph Callisto (Cavalli); Queen Semiramis of Assyria (Pietro Andrea Ziani); and Messalina, wife of Claudius (Carlo Pallavicino).

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 by gender theorists. Can opera - an antiquated, Eurocentric bastion of high culture - in fact be subverting patriarchal authority in some fundamental way?

Everything you could possibly know about Verdi and his operas, from the brilliant and humorous author of Wagner Without Fear.

If you want to know why La traviata was actually a flop at its premiere in 1853, it's in here.  If you want to know why claiming to have heard Bjorling's Chicago performance of Il trovatore is the classic opera fan faux pas, it's in here.  Even if you just want to know how to pronounce Aida, or what the plot of Rigoletto is all about, this is the place to look.  From the composer's intense hatred of priests to synopses of the operas and a detailed discography of the best recordings to buy, it can all be found in Verdi with a Vengeance.  William Berger has given another improbable performance, serving up a book as thorough as it is funny and as original as it is astute, an utterly indispensable guide for novice and expert alike.    

Seit dem Welterfolg der Oper Wozzeck von Alban Berg ist Georg Buchner Teil der Musikgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts geworden. Zwischen 1925 und heute wurden 15 Buchner-Opern aufgefuhrt, darunter einige von bleibendem Wert. Der Band gibt einen Uberblick uber die Werke, problematisiert ihren Status als « Literaturopern und bringt Einzelanalysen der Stucke von Paul Dessau, Peter Maxwell Davies, Friedrich Schenker, Gottfried von Einem, Alban Berg, Manfred Gurlitt und Wolfgang Rihm. In zwei Beitragen wird die Geschichte der Buchner-Rezeption in der Literaturwissenschaft dargelegt. Die von der Fachwissenschaft entwickelten Buchner-Bilder zeigen Spuren der jeweiligen zeit- und geistesgeschichtlichen Kontexte, die sich auch in den Opern wiederfinden. Aus dem Inhalt: Uberblick uber die Buchner-Bilder der Literaturwissenschaft und die 15 Buchner-Opern-Einzelanalysen der wichtigsten Werke von Paul Dessau, Peter Maxwell Davies, Friedrich Schenker, Gottfried von Einem, Alban Berg, Manfred Gurlitt und Wolfgang Rihm-Gliederung des Bandes: Buchner-Rezeption-Leonce und Lena-Dantons Tod-Woyzeck-Das Leben der Dichter. « Ebenso konsequent wie spannend wird in den Beitragen die Frage der Verfasser-Standorte nicht nur erkannt und theoretisch reflektiert, sondern entfaltet wissenschaftspraktische Valenzen: Indem Autoren verschiedener Lebensalter und (politischer) Erfahrungswelten zu Wort kommen, erganzen sich die Beitrage zum Wissenschaftsdialog und der Band wird zum Forum ebenso engagierter wie offener wissenschaftlicher Diskussion. (Susanne Rode, Osterreichische Musikzeitschrift)

This behind-the-scenes look at the world of opera is filled with anecdotes, events, and trivia unknown to most of the general public that provide a different view of the principal protagonists of this musical and lyrical art. "Esta mirada entre bastidores del mundo de la opera esta repleto de anecdotas, sucesos y curiosidades poco conocidas para el gran publico que aportan otra vision de los protagonistas principales de este arte lirico y musical."

In Ticket to the Opera, Phil G. Goulding finally makes the magic and mystique of opera accessible to all. Here he offers a complete operatic education, including history, definitions of key musical terms, opera lore and gossip, portraits of famous singers and the roles they immortalized, as well as pithy introductions to the greatest operas of Europe and America and their composers. The book's centerpiece is what Goulding terms "the collection"--85 classics, among them Aida, The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly, that have been packing the world's opera houses for years. This entertaining, meticulously researched book also includes a fascinating chapter on American opera from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess to Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach and a discussion of the gems of twentieth-century opera featuring works like Leos Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Alban Berg's Lulu, and Serge Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges.

Whether you're a curious neophyte, a music lover interested in branching out, or an aficionado eager to compare notes with a brilliant fellow opera buff, you'll prize Ticket to the Opera as an essential volume in your music library.

So You Want to Sing Light Opera is a concise handbook for performers, teachers, and directors who want to learn more about the delightful genre of light opera, including Viennese operetta, English comic opera, French opera bouffe, and Spanish zarzuela. Award-winning opera director and singer Linda Lister brings clarity to this often misunderstood and overlooked category of music with detailed information on how to prepare and perform roles with stylistic and musical sensitivity and to deliver spoken dialogue and choreography with confidence. Lister focuses on the attributes of a light opera performer, light opera singing style, historical references, audition advice, directing insights, extensive repertoire recommendations Singing professionals, teachers, students, conductors, stage directors, coaches, and choreographers will find this book to be an ideal resource for the style. The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Light Opera features online supplemental material on the NATS website. Please visit www.nats.org to access style-specific exercises, audio and video files, and additional resources.

The subject-matter of Meyerbeer's second opera Wirt und Gast, or Aus Scherz Ernst (also called Alimelek), written in Munich in 1812, was taken from a tale in The Arabian Nights. The story of the man who would be sovereign, if only for one day, so frequently treated in the literature of all nations. The opera is an example of the Oriental or "Turkish" operas which were so popular in Germany during the second third of the eighteenth century. The orchestra includes, besides the strings, doubled wood-wind, and threefold percussion, only two horns, two trumpets, and one trombone. While Meyerbeer's contemporaries were puzzled by the far-fetched singularity of the Alimelik music, and the work had no success in Stuttgart and Vienna (6 January 1813; 20 October 1814), Weber had the insight to recognize its true significance. He produced it Prague on 20 October 1815, and praised the "active, alert imagination, the well-nigh voluptuous melody, the correct declamation, the entire musical attitude." He was also impressed by the instrumentation: "It is surprisingly combined, interwoven with great delicacy, and consequently demands almost the care of a quartet performance." Weber's enduring admiration meant that he again produced the work in Dresden years later (1820), when he pointed out how this early opera "bears witness to the composer's singular emotional capacity."This facsimile edition contains the composer's entire conception of the work, restoring material cut from the first performance. Meyerbeer shows astonishing maturity for a composer of twenty-one. Not only the psychic state of the leading characters, but also the conflict of the entire plot, is presented in concentrated style by the aid of recurrent themes. "The specifically romantico-psychological modification of the leading-motive is met with here for the first time, i.e., two years before Wagner's birth" (Edgar Istel).