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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Theatre, drama > Opera

The Song of the Lark;With an Excerpt by H. L. Mencken (Paperback): Willa Cather The Song of the Lark;With an Excerpt by H. L. Mencken (Paperback)
Willa Cather; Contributions by H.L. Mencken
R808 Discovery Miles 8 080 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Puccini's La Boheme (Paperback): Alexandra Wilson Puccini's La Boheme (Paperback)
Alexandra Wilson
R535 Discovery Miles 5 350 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world. But how did it come to be so adored? In this book, author Alexandra Wilson traces La Boheme's rise to fame and demonstrates that its success grew steadily through stage performances, recordings, filmed versions and the endorsements of star singers. More recently, popular songs, film soundtracks and musicals that draw on the opera's music and themes added further to its immense cultural impact. This cultural history offers a fresh reading of a familiar work. Wilson argues that La Boheme's approach to realism and its flouting of conventions of the Italian operatic tradition made it strikingly modern for the 1890s. She explores how Puccini and his librettists engaged with gender, urban poverty and nostalgia-themes that grew out of the work's own time and continue to resonate with audiences more than 120 years later. Her analysis of the opera's depiction of Paris reveals that La Boheme was not only influenced by the romantic mythologies surrounding the city to this day but also helped shape them. Wilson's consideration of how directors have reinvented this opera for a new age completes this fascinating history of La Boheme, making it essential reading for anyone interested in this opera and the works it inspired.

Bottom Feeder (Paperback): Christopher Gillett Bottom Feeder (Paperback)
Christopher Gillett
R360 Discovery Miles 3 600 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
The Bumper Book Of Bottoms - Who's My Bottom?, Scraping The Bottom, and Bottom Feeder - all in one volume (Paperback):... The Bumper Book Of Bottoms - Who's My Bottom?, Scraping The Bottom, and Bottom Feeder - all in one volume (Paperback)
Christopher Gillett
R727 Discovery Miles 7 270 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Puccini's Operas (Paperback): Merritt Wilson Puccini's Operas (Paperback)
Merritt Wilson
R799 R647 Discovery Miles 6 470 Save R152 (19%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Salome - A Tragedy in One Act (Paperback): Oscar Wilde Salome - A Tragedy in One Act (Paperback)
Oscar Wilde; Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley
R423 Discovery Miles 4 230 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Manon Lescaut - A Lyric Drama In Four Acts (Paperback): Giacomo Puccini Manon Lescaut - A Lyric Drama In Four Acts (Paperback)
Giacomo Puccini
R241 Discovery Miles 2 410 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
DasJati - Halfway to Heaven: A Photographic Report on the Ten Lives of the Buddha Project (Hardcover): S.P. Somtow DasJati - Halfway to Heaven: A Photographic Report on the Ten Lives of the Buddha Project (Hardcover)
S.P. Somtow
R845 Discovery Miles 8 450 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Wagner and the Erotic Impulse (Paperback): Laurence Dreyfus Wagner and the Erotic Impulse (Paperback)
Laurence Dreyfus
R853 R792 Discovery Miles 7 920 Save R61 (7%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Though his image is tarnished today by unrepentant anti-Semitism, Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was better known in the nineteenth century for his provocative musical eroticism. In this illuminating study of the composer and his works, Laurence Dreyfus shows how Wagner's obsession with sexuality prefigured the composition of operas such as Tannhauser, Die Walkure, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal. Daring to represent erotic stimulation, passionate ecstasy, and the torment of sexual desire, Wagner sparked intense reactions from figures like Baudelaire, Clara Schumann, Nietzsche, and Nordau, whose verbal tributes and censures disclose what was transmitted when music represented sex. Wagner himself saw the cultivation of an erotic high style as central to his art, especially after devising an anti-philosophical response to Schopenhauer's "metaphysics of sexual love." A reluctant eroticist, Wagner masked his personal compulsion to cross-dress in pink satin and drench himself in rose perfumes while simultaneously incorporating his silk fetish and love of floral scents into his librettos. His affection for dominant females and surprising regard for homosexual love likewise enable some striking portraits in his operas. In the end, Wagner's achievement was to have fashioned an oeuvre which explored his sexual yearnings as much as it conveyed-as never before-how music could act on erotic impulse.

A Guide to the Opera (Hardcover): Esther Singleton A Guide to the Opera (Hardcover)
Esther Singleton
R1,047 Discovery Miles 10 470 Out of stock
A Guide to the Opera (Paperback): Esther Singleton A Guide to the Opera (Paperback)
Esther Singleton
R741 Discovery Miles 7 410 Out of stock
Memoirs of the Opera in Italy, France, Germany, and England; Volume II (Hardcover): George Hogarth Memoirs of the Opera in Italy, France, Germany, and England; Volume II (Hardcover)
George Hogarth
R1,044 Discovery Miles 10 440 Out of stock
Forests, Flowers, and Fairytales - The Operas and Ballets of Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Maurice Ravel (Hardcover): Stephen... Forests, Flowers, and Fairytales - The Operas and Ballets of Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Maurice Ravel (Hardcover)
Stephen J. Trygar; Illustrated by Jonathan T Mesich; Cover design or artwork by Brian Edwards
R866 Discovery Miles 8 660 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
The Italian Traditions and Puccini - Compositional Theory and Practice in Nineteenth-Century Opera (Hardcover): Nicholas... The Italian Traditions and Puccini - Compositional Theory and Practice in Nineteenth-Century Opera (Hardcover)
Nicholas Baragwanath
R1,321 R1,254 Discovery Miles 12 540 Save R67 (5%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In this groundbreaking survey of the fundamentals, methods, and formulas that were taught at Italian music conservatories during the 19th century, Nicholas Baragwanath explores the compositional significance of tradition in Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Boito, and, most importantly, Puccini. Taking account of some 400 primary sources, Baragwanath explains the varying theories and practices of the period in light of current theoretical and analytical conceptions of this music. The Italian Traditions and Puccini offers a guide to an informed interpretation and appreciation of Italian opera by underscoring the proximity of archaic traditions to the music of Puccini.

A View from the Podium - A Memoir (Hardcover): Eve Queler A View from the Podium - A Memoir (Hardcover)
Eve Queler
R858 Discovery Miles 8 580 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
My Life with Wagner (Paperback): Christian Thielemann My Life with Wagner (Paperback)
Christian Thielemann 1
R532 R434 Discovery Miles 4 340 Save R98 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

'Idiosyncratic, humorous, enlightening and written by one of the finest conductors alive ... This is the book to buy if you are going to see Wagner or listen to him at home' LITERARY REVIEW Over a distinguished career conducting some of the world's finest orchestras, Christian Thielemann has earned a reputation as the leading modern interpreter of Richard Wagner. MY LIFE WITH WAGNER chronicles his ardent personal and professional engagement with the composer whose work has shaped his thinking and feeling from early childhood. Thielemann retraces his journey with Wagner - from Berlin to Bayreuth via Venice, Hamburg and Chicago. Next he takes each opera in turn, his appraisal illuminated by a deep affinity for the music, an intimate knowledge of the scores and the inside perspective of an outstanding practitioner. And yet for all the adulation Wagner's art inspires in him, Thielemann does not shy away from unpalatable truths about the man himself, explaining why today he is venerated and reviled in equal measure. The result is a richly rewarding read for admirers of a composer who continues to fascinate long after his death.

The Great Operas of Richard Wagner - An Account of the Life and Work of This Distinguished Composer, with Particular Attention... The Great Operas of Richard Wagner - An Account of the Life and Work of This Distinguished Composer, with Particular Attention to His Operas - Illustrated with Portraits in Costume and Scenes from Opera (Paperback)
Gustav Kobbe
R621 Discovery Miles 6 210 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Blue Nestira (Paperback): Aliete Guerrero Blue Nestira (Paperback)
Aliete Guerrero
R521 R436 Discovery Miles 4 360 Save R85 (16%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
John Piper, Myfanwy Piper - A Biography (Paperback): Frances Spalding John Piper, Myfanwy Piper - A Biography (Paperback)
Frances Spalding
R1,219 R977 Discovery Miles 9 770 Save R242 (20%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This book is about a shared journey made by John and Myfanwy Piper who early on settled down in a small hamlet on the edge of the Chilterns, whence they proceeded to produce work which placed them centre stage in the cultural landscape of the twentieth century. Here, too, they fed and entertained many visitors, among them Kenneth Clark, John Betjeman, Osbert Lancaster, Benjamin Britten, and the Queen Mother. Their creative partnership encompasses not only a long marriage and numerous private and professional vicissitudes, but also a genuine legacy of lasting achievements in the visual arts, literature and music. Frances Spalding also sheds new light on the story of British art in the 1930s. In the middle of this decade John Piper and Myfanwy Evans (they did not marry until 1937) were at the forefront of avant-garde activities in England, Myfanwy editing the most advanced art magazine of the day and John working alongside Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and others. But as the decade progressed and the political situation in Europe worsened, they changed their allegiances, John Piper investigating in his art a sense of place, belonging, history, memory, and the nature of national identity, all issues that are very much to the fore in today's world. Myfanwy Piper is best known as 'Golden Myfanwy', Betjeman's muse and for her work as librettist with Benjamin Britten. John Piper was an extraordinarily prolific artist in many media, his fertile career stretching over six decades and involving him in many changes of style. Having been an abstract painter in the 1930s, he became best known for his landscapes and architectural scenes in a romantic style. This core interest, in the English and Welsh landscape and the built environment, developed in him a sensibility that took in almost everything, from gin palaces to painted quoins, from ruined cottages to country houses, from Victorian shop fronts to what is nowadays called industrial archeology. His capacious and divided sensibility made him defender of many aspects of the English landscape and the built environment, while in his art he became an heir of that great tradition encompassing Wordsworth and Blake, Turner, Ruskin, and Samuel Palmer. He was torn between the pleasures of an abstract language liberated from time and place and those embedded in the locale, in buildings, geography, and history. Today, this expansive contradictoriness seems quintessentially modern, his divided response finding an echo in our own ambivalence towards modernity. Both Pipers created what seemed to many observers an ideal way of life, involving children, friendships, good food, humour, the pleasures of a garden, work, and creativity. Running through their lives is a fertile tension between a commitment to the new and a desire to reinvigorate certain native traditions. This tension produced work that is passionate and experimental. 'Only those who live most vividly in the present', John Russell observed of John and Myfanwy Piper, 'deserve to inherit the past'.

Theology of Wagner's Ring Cycle II (Hardcover): Richard H. Bell Theology of Wagner's Ring Cycle II (Hardcover)
Richard H. Bell
R1,806 R1,411 Discovery Miles 14 110 Save R395 (22%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
The World of Italian Opera (Paperback): Thomas E. Vesce The World of Italian Opera (Paperback)
Thomas E. Vesce
R773 Discovery Miles 7 730 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
DasJati - Halfway to Heaven - A Photographic Report on the Ten Lives of the Buddha Project (Paperback): S.P. Somtow DasJati - Halfway to Heaven - A Photographic Report on the Ten Lives of the Buddha Project (Paperback)
S.P. Somtow
R579 Discovery Miles 5 790 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
The Great Operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - An Account of the Life and Work of This Distinguished Composer, with Particular... The Great Operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - An Account of the Life and Work of This Distinguished Composer, with Particular Attention to His Operas - Illustrated with Portraits in Costume and Scenes from Opera (Paperback)
Gustav Kobbe
R414 Discovery Miles 4 140 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Aida - An Opera in Four Acts (Paperback): Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni Aida - An Opera in Four Acts (Paperback)
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni
R160 Discovery Miles 1 600 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Donna Diana Overture - Study score (Paperback, Sargeant ed.): Emil Nikolaus Von Reznicek Donna Diana Overture - Study score (Paperback, Sargeant ed.)
Emil Nikolaus Von Reznicek; Edited by Richard W. Sargeant
R402 Discovery Miles 4 020 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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