Thirty-three leading American and British playwrights, from Robert Anderson to Paul Zindel, discuss their views on their own work and contemporary drama, and offer projections about theater for the 21st century. Proceeding from the premise that recent drama in various ways is a reaction to the modernism of Theater of the Absurd, the interviewer, John DiGaetani, terms the diverse responses postmodernism. This concept, while not universally accepted by the playwrights interviewed, becomes a point of departure for lively dialogue, providing insights into the particular playwrights and on contemporary theater in general. Included among the interviewees are farcists, such as Alan Ayckbourn, Tina Howe, and Michael Frayn; playwrights of ethnic and black theater, such as Amlin Gray, Ed Bullins, and August Wilson; embodiments of Chekhovian theater, such as Simon Gray and A. R. Gurney; Maximalists like David Henry Hwang; feminists like Marsha Norman and Timberlake Wertenbaker; exponents of gay theater like Mart Crowley and William Hoffman; social critics like David Storey and Israel Horovitz; and traditionalists like Horton Foote, Romulus Linney, and Robert Anderson. Despite these broadly applied labels, clearly the output of these playwrights cannot be neatly pigeonholed even individually--let alone collectively--to describe any prevailing mode. Therefore, interviewer DiGaetani has chosen to stay with the appellation postmodernism, a widely accepted critical term in the arts used to signify a reaction to what is now an old-fashioned modernism.

Joining two seemingly irreconcilable opposites, money and art, this edited collection analyzes the treatment of money in various forms of literature. The volume begins with chapters analyzing money in terms of language and culture, and then turns to money in history, showing how money has been influenced by, and has changed, history. Using the theories developed in the first two sections, the chapters that follow consider the literatures of Russia and America, French literature, and English literature.

In Part I, contributors look at such themes as money in Christian culture and the pervasive influence of money on language. Part II considers Queen Elizabeth I's use of money for propaganda, money shortages in 18th-century France, and banking in 19th-century America. The following sections provide the major focus of the work--the theme of money in literature. American and Russian literature are considered in essays on the work of Alexander Pushkin, Henry James, and William Carlos Williams. Part III, on French literature, looks at the work of Moliere, Flaubert, Balzac, Zola, and Andre Gide. The final, long section analyzes money's appearance in English literature, including the work of Shakespeare, George Herbert, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, and Bram Stoker.

The life and career of the Nobel Prize winning dramatist Luigi Pirandello is the subject of this important new reference companion. Designed to improve the general understanding of this major literary figure, the book focuses not only on "Six Characters in Search of an Author," Pirandello's most famous work, but also on other plays, novels, short stories, and even translations of his poems. In addition to essays by some of the best-known Pirandello experts and drama scholars, the volume contains background information on Pirandello and a complete bibliography of his works and books and articles about him.

Working within a structured set of categories, the contributors adopt a variety of styles in exploring significant aspects of Pirandello and his work. The six essays under Pirandello's world include his philosophy, his journey toward the modern stage, feminine conditions in his work, and his treatment of medical ethics. A section on background information includes surveys of theater in Italy before Pirandello and surrealism in his work, while the seven contributions on his plays focus on "Six Characters in Search of an Author," "Henry IV," and "Tonight We Improvise." Subsequent sections address Pirandello's influence, his work in production, and his non-theatrical works. The book concludes with a set of three appendixes, providing a production history of "Six CharacterS" and "Henry IV," a Pirandello bibliography, and a list of his publications. This major new work will be especially useful for courses in modern drama, modern literature, and Italian literature, and a significant reference tool for public, college, and university libraries.

This is a new biography of the German composer Richard Wagner, 100 years after his birth, re-examining his life in light of new documents and new sensibilities. Since World War II Wagner has often been wrongly associated with the name of Adolf Hitler because Hitler liked Wagner's music and used it in Nazi propaganda. But Wagner died in 1883--fifty years before Hitler's regime. It is time to have a fresh look at Wagner's life in terms of new realities and without the Nazi associations which he does not deserve. His life was a series of abandonments and traumas, for the self-destructive but creative genius, in which he tried to survive as a free lance composer in the hostile environments of l9th century Germany.

Once tainted by association with Hitler and Nazism, Richard Wagner's work has experienced an international cultural renaissance in the last 25 years. His magnum opus, ""Der Ring des Nibelungen"", which took him over 20 years to finish, is a complex tale with themes of greed, corruption and loss, spun out in more than 16 hours of powerfully moving opera. This book, with provocative essays for both the uninitiated and the seasoned fan, examines Wagner's Ring cycle from a wide array of modern perspectives. Divided into six parts, this anthology first offers a foundation for the ""Ring"", with a chronology and an introduction, along with a look at Wagner as an enterprising marketer. Part Two explores different interpretations of the ""Ring"", with reference to politics, romanticism and international inspirations. Part Three studies the complex relationship between Wagner's ""Ring"" and Germany, with a summary of the opera's influence on German culture and a discussion of its Munich premiere. Part Four offers a production history, including studies of the ""Ring's"" effects in America and its influence on world literature. Part Five provides a technical examination of language in the ""Ring"", as well as an interview with the famous Wagnerian soprano Jane Eaglen. The book concludes with an essay on the trouble with Wagnerian opera and an overview of the recorded ""Ring"" on disc, video and print.

Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi (1720-1806) is best known for his plays that have famously been adapted into opera librettos. Puccini's final opera, Turandot, was based on a play by Gozzi. Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges is also based on a Gozzi play. Richard Wagner's first opera, Die Feen , is based on Gozzi's La Donna Serpente . Mozart's The Magic Flute contains many elements that are similar to Gozzi's plays. Gozzi was the most successful playwright in 18th century Venice. This is the first full biography in English of this major figure in the history of world theatre. He is well known for reviving commedia dell'arte, an ancient form of Italian improvisational theatre that had fallen out of favour before Gozzi's time: In this way his plays soon became the most popular in Venice and other parts of Italy.

In its revised third edition, this volume argues that an appreciation of opera is based on an understanding of several key aspects: history, language, theatrical production, the power of the conductor, vocal tradition and standard repertory. This unique approach is intended for the newcomer curious about the art form. The author discusses how opera has changed in the last three decades and how it is now more easily enjoyed than ever before. Originally published in 1986, this book has been translated into four languages and has been used as an "Introduction to Opera" text in college classrooms around the world.

Designed as a companion volume to 2008's ""Inside the Ring"", which focused on the four operas comprising Richard Wagner's ""Der Ring des Nibelungen"", this new volume features more than a dozen original essays focusing on all of Wagner's non-Ring operas. Part one looks at the individual operas, including ""Der Fliegende Hollander"", ""Tannhauser"", ""Lohengrin"", ""Tristan und Isolde"", ""Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg"", and ""Parsifal"". Part two reveals the connections between Wagnerian opera and other arts, including dance, filmmaking, and written fiction. Finally, Part three examines Wagner's operas in performance, featuring interviews with mezzosoprano Michelle DeYoung and heldentenor Ben Heppner, both well-known for their Wagnerian performances. The book also includes several photographs from current productions by the Metropolitan Opera and other opera companies, along with a recommended discography of performances.

Maria Callas was, perhaps, the greatest opera singer of the 20th century. Hers was a life lived on the world stage, and her fame extended to the public consciousness of many parts of the world. Even after her mysterious death in 1977, her singing and acting continue to thrill new generations of opera fans thanks to her many recordings and her fascinating life. This new biography of Callas tells her story from difficult beginnings as the daughter of Greek immigrants to New York City in 1923 to her wonderful performances at La Scala, Covent Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera. Callas was quite a diva and a master at creating a captivating public image. She also became notorious because of her very public affair with Aristotle Onassis, the wealthy ship-owner who left Callas to marry Jacqueline Kennedy.