Die Studie widmet sich dem Musiktheater, welches mit seiner Formenvielfalt das Theater im deutschen Sprachraum zwischen 1680 und 1740 beherrschte. Den Schwerpunkt der Untersuchung bilden dabei die Buhnen in Hamburg, Braunschweig, Weissenfels und Leipzig, die in den europaischen Kontext des Musiktheaters gestellt werden. Zunachst wird am Beispiel fruher Rezensionen und musiktheoretischer Schriften sowie der pietistischen und der rationalistischen Opernkritik die Art des Sprechens uber das Musiktheater dargestellt. In den zeitgenoessischen Diskursen ergaben sich im Zusammenhang mit der auf die Sinne ausgerichteten Wirkungsabsicht des Musiktheaters Probleme, die im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung stehen. Das Zusammen- und Gegeneinanderwirken der Kunste und der durch sie angesprochenen Sinne wird vor allem an Prologen untersucht, die den Wettstreit der Kunste thematisieren, sowie an "Antiochus und Stratonica"-Opern, die die Differenzen verbaler und nonverbaler Zeichensysteme einsetzen. Der Funktionswandel des Geschmackssinns wird anhand der Essensthematik verfolgt, die Wandlungen des Tastsinnes an den verschiedenen Liebeskonzeptionen in den Opern. Die politische Dimension von Sinnlichkeit zeigt sich in der Verbindung zwischen Oper und Zeremoniell, wobei das Musiktheater, wie am Beispiel Weissenfels' erkennbar, als Zeremoniellsimulator fungiert.

A superbly insightful and moving exploration of Wagner's last opera, by one of Britain's leading intellectuals Wagner's last music-drama tells the story of Parsifal, the 'pure fool, knowing through compassion', who has been called to rescue the Kingdom of the Grail from the sins that have polluted it. The Grail is a symbol of purity in a world of lust and power, but although Parsifal is the culmination of Wagner's life-long obsession with the religious frame of mind, the redemption sought by his characters is far from the Christian archetype. For Wagner, redemption occurs inthis life, when compassion prevails over enslavement, and purity replaces spiritual pollution. His music here ties together suffering and contrition, sin and forgiveness, downfall and redemption in an inextricable knot, healing the fractures and uniting the warring elements in human life in a way that is clear, convincing and uncanny. More than any other of his works, Parsifal expresses in music a depth of feeling for which we do not have words. This short but penetrating book, by a writer who was uniquely both a leading philosopher and musicologist, shows us how Wagner achieves this profound work, explaining the story, its musical ideas, and their coming together into a sublime whole which gives us the musical equivalent of forgiveness and closure. There are few writers who can so enhance our understanding of one of the greatest works in western music.

Dorothea Link examines singers' voices and casting practices in late eighteenth-century Italian opera as exemplified in Vienna's court opera from 1783 to 1791. The investigation into the singers' voices proceeds on two levels: understanding the performers in terms of the vocal-dramatic categories employed in opera at the time; and creating vocal profiles for the principal singers from the music composed expressly for them. In addition, Link contextualizes the singers within the company in order to expose the court opera's casting practices. Authoritative and insightful, The Italian Opera Singers in Mozart's Vienna offers a singular look at a musical milieu and a key to addressing the performance-practice problem of how to cast the Mozart roles today.

Nothing strikes the ear quite like a soprano singing in the sonic stratosphere. Whether thrilling, chilling, or repellent to the listener, the reaction to cascades of coloratura with climaxing high notes is strong. Coloratura-agile, rapid-fire singing-was originally essential for all singers, but its function changed greatly when it became the specialty of particular sopranos over the course of the nineteenth century. The central argument of Vocal Virtuosity challenges the historical commonplace that coloratura became an anachronism in nineteenth-century opera. Instead, the book demonstrates that melismas at mid-century were made modern. Coloratura became an increasingly marked musical gesture during the century with a correspondingly more specific dramaturgical function. In exploring this transformation, the book reveals the instigators of this change in vocal practice and examines the historical traces of Parisian singers who were the period's greatest exponents of vertiginous vocality as archetypes of the modern coloratura soprano. The book constructs the historical trajectory of coloratura as it became gendered the provenance of the female singer, while also considering what melismas can signify in operatic performance. As a whole, it argues that vocal virtuosity was a source of power for women, generating space for female authorship and creativity. In so doing, the book reclaims a place in history for the coloratura soprano.

The reception accorded to Jacques Offenbach's (1819-1880) stage works is traditionally dominated by concepts such as 'satire' or 'parody'. But the insistence on such categories fails to do justice to the heterogeneous nature of his oeuvre. One way of remedying this defect is to examine the works in the literary and dramatic context of the age in which they were written. Paradigmatic for the preoccupation with moral discourse typical of that age is Alexandre Dumas fils' essay AThA(c)A[tre utileA. The study sets out to demonstrate that at an idealistic level Dumas fils and Offenbach had more in common than has been hitherto supposed.

Starting in the late 18th century a development is observable in which a new theatrical aesthetic of dramatic speech exploiting the musical potential of the voice went hand in hand with an abundance of melo-dramatic forms. Cutting across the boundaries of genre and the customary distinction between spoken art and music, theoreticians and practitioners explored the declamatory use of speech as a musical phenomenon in its own right. The present interdisciplinary study examines the development of this historical combination of the speaking voice and the musical arts, concentrating in particular on the profusion of different forms of 'Melodram' in the period in question.

A destination for thousands of opera lovers every year and the anchor of Santa Fe's thriving arts scene, the Santa Fe Opera owes its existence to the vision and hard work of one man: John O'Hea Crosby (1926-2002), who created the company when he was only thirty years old and guided its fortunes for the next forty-five years. This book, the first in-depth exploration of Crosby's career, shows how the Opera reflected his passions for music and the arts. A Vision of Voices depicts the many sides of Crosby-a dreamer and tough-minded businessman, an artistic explorer and conservative programmer, and a competent conductor and sharp critic. His devotion to quality and his obsessive oversight bore an enduring harvest that forever changed Santa Fe, the state of New Mexico, and the operatic world.

Since the first performance of the first opera in 1600, operas have been telling stories from myth and history. This book - beginning with the Creation and ending in the present day - is a chronology of myth and history as told in opera. Over 260 paintings and photographs, most in colour, accompany the narrative. Why were particular myths and historical events important at particular times? Why were the same myths and historical events told in radically different ways? In seeking answers to these questions, this book charts how the modern West migrated from autocracy towards liberal democracy, from theocratic absolutism towards tolerant pluralism, from sexism towards gender equality. It traces growing scepticism about religiously inspired warfare and colonial empire building. Unlike anything previously published, this is a book for lovers of history and the arts, and for anyone interested in how the western world of today came into being. By exploring a bewitchingly beautiful art form, it chronicles a sequence of extraordinary transformations: the political, religious and social revolutions that created the modern West.

'Wingbeats' was an ambitous cultural project inspired by our perennial wish to fly and the paradoxical question: how can we fly without leaving the ground? Over a period of two years, the project brought together international and UK artists, school children, university students and residents of the East Riding to create two ambitous operas performed in Leeds and Bridlington. For this book, Adam Strickson, lead artist for Wingbeats, has compiled a fascinating selection of material from the project including poems, excerpts from diaries and blogs, and the full texts of both operas.

This is the first book to compare these two composers and cultural heroes, both of whom were born in 1813 and achieved huge national and international renown in their lifetimes. Yet not only did they never meet, but the differences between them in music, culture, environment, significance, and legacy were profound.

Peter Conrad begins his tale in a public park in Venice, home to a pair of statues of the composers that are positioned so as to appear to shun each other. This provides a fitting starting point for his argument that they represent two opposite yet equally integral and compelling dimensions of European culture: north versus south, cerebral versus sensual, proud solitude versus human connection, epic mythmaking versus humane magnanimity. The book is a richly argued tour de force that engages passionately and profoundly with music, biography, history, politics, philosophy, psychology, and culture in the broadest sense. As Conrad concludes, At one time or another, if not simultaneously, we still need the two contradictory, complementary kinds of music that Verdi and Wagner left us. "

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.

Performing in a country rife with racism and segregation, the tenor Roland Hayes was the first African American man to reach international fame as a concert performer and one of the few artists who could sell out Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, and Covent Garden. His trailblazing career carved the way for a host of African American artists, including Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson. Performing the African American spirituals he was raised on, Hayes's voice was marked with a unique sonority which easily navigated French, German, and Italian art songs. A multiculturalist both on and off the stage, he counted among his friends George Washington Carver, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ezra Pound, Pearl Buck, Dwight Eisenhower, and Langston Hughes. This engaging biography spans the history of Hayes's life and career and the legacy he left behind as a musician and a champion of African American rights. It is an authentic, panoramic portrait of a man who was as complex as the music he performed.

The English tenor, Peter Pears, made a unique contribution to British musical life, not only through his own singing, but as the inspiration and muse of his life-long companion Benjamin Britten, who created for Pears some of the greatest tenor roles in 20th-century opera. This book describes Pears's life, his childhood and school days at Lancing College, his abortive academic career at Oxford and his early professional work as a member of the BBC singers. The first half of this book culminates in Pears's meeting with Britten in the 1930s, and their relationship consolidated during their wartime years in America, and by the fruitfulness of their artistic collaboration which resulted in several extraordinary song cycles and a number of inspirational roles on the stage including Grimes in Peter Grimes, Captain Vere in Billy Budd and Aschenbach in Death in Venice.