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Regina Mingotti was the first female impresario to run London's
opera house. Born in Naples in 1722, she was the daughter of an
Austrian diplomat, and had worked at Dresden under Hasse from 1747.
Mingotti left Germany in 1752, and travelled to Madrid to sing at
the Spanish court, where the opera was directed by the great
castrato, Farinelli. It is not known quite how Francesco Vanneschi,
the opera promoter, came to hire Mingotti, but in 1754 (travelling
to England via Paris), she was announced as being engaged for the
opera in London 'having been admired at Naples and other parts of
Italy, by all the Connoisseurs, as much for the elegance of her
voice as that of her features'. Michael Burden offers the first
considered survey of Mingotti's London years, including material on
Mingotti's publication activities, and the identification of the
characters in the key satirical print 'The Idol'. Burden makes a
significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of
eighteenth-century singers' careers and status, and discusses the
management, the finance, the choice of repertory, and the pasticcio
practice at The King's Theatre, Haymarket during the middle of the
eighteenth century. Burden also argues that Mingotti's years with
Farinelli influenced her understanding of drama, fed her
appreciation of Metastasio, and were partly responsible for London
labelling her a 'female Garrick'. The book includes the important
publication of the complete texts of both of Mingotti's Appeals to
the Publick, accounts of the squabble between Mingotti and
Vanneschi, which shed light on the role a singer could play in the
replacement of arias.
The diary of Anton Reiff Jr. (c. 1830-1916) is one of only a
handful of primary sources to offer a firsthand account of
antebellum riverboat travel in the American South. The Pyne and
Harrison Opera Troupe, a company run by English sisters Susan and
Louisa Pyne and their business partner, tenor William Harrison,
hired Reiff, then freelancing in New York, to serve as musical
director and conductor for the company's American itinerary. The
grueling tour began in November 1855 in Boston and then proceeded
to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati,
where, after a three-week engagement, the company boarded a paddle
steamer bound for New Orleans. It was at that point that Reiff
started to keep his diary. Diligently transcribed and annotated by
Michael Burden, Reiff's diary presents an extraordinarily rare view
of life with a foreign opera company as it traveled the country by
river and rail. Surprisingly, Reiff comments little on the
Pyne-Harrison performances themselves, although he does visit the
theaters in the river towns, including New Orleans, where he spends
evenings both at the French Opera and at the Gaiety. Instead, Reiff
focuses his attention on other passengers, on the mechanics of the
journey, on the landscape, and on events he encounters, including
the 1856 Mardi Gras and the unveiling of the statue of Andrew
Jackson in New Orleans's Jackson Square. Reiff is clearly
captivated by the river towns and their residents, including the
enslaved, whom he encountered whenever the boat tied up. Running
throughout the journal is a thread of anxiety, for, apart from the
typical dangers of a river trip, the winter of 1855-1856 was one of
the coldest of the century, and the steamer had difficulties with
river ice. Historians have used Reiff's journal as source material,
but until now the entire text, which is archived in Louisiana State
University's Special Collections in Hill Memorial Library, has only
been available in its original state. As a primary source, the
published journal will have broad appeal to historians and other
readers interested in antebellum riverboat travel, highbrow
entertainment, and the people and places of the South.
The first book-length study of musical education and culture in
twentieth-century Oxford. Music has always played a central role in
the life of Oxford, in both the city and university, through the
great collegiate choral foundations, the many amateur choirs and
instrumentalists, and the professional musicians regularly drawn to
perform there. Oxford, with its collegiate system and
centuries-long tradition of musical activity, presents a
distinctive and multi-layered picture of the role of music in urban
culture and university life. The chapters in this book shed light
on music's unique ability to link 'town and gown', as shown by the
Oxford Bach Choir, the city's many churches, and the major choral
foundations. The twentieth century saw the emergence of new musical
initiatives and the book traces the development of these, including
the University's Faculty of Music and the University Opera Club.
Further, it explores music in the newly-founded women's colleges,
contrasted with the musical society formed in 1930 at University
College, an ancient men's college. The work of Oxford composers,
including George Butterworth, Nicola Lefanu, Edmund Rubbra, and
William Walton, as well as the composer for several 'Carry on'
films, Bruce Montgomery, is surveyed. Two remarkable figures, Sir
Hugh Allen and Sir Jack Westrup, recur throughout the book in a
variety of contexts. The volume is indispensable reading for
scholars and students of musical life in twentieth-century Britain,
as well as those interested generally in the history of Oxford's
thriving cultural life.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, historical
subjects became some of the most popular topics for stage dramas of
all kinds on both sides of the Atlantic. This collection of essays
examines a number of extraordinary theatrical works in order to
cast light on their role in shaping a popular interpretation of
historical events. The medium of drama ensured that the telling of
these histories - the French Revolution and the American War of
Independence, for example, or the travels of Captain Cook and
Christopher Columbus - were brought to life through words, music
and spectacle. The scale of the productions was often ambitious: a
water tank with model floating ships was deployed at Sadler's Wells
for the staging of the Siege of Gibraltar, and another production
on the same theme used live cannons which set fire to the vessels
in each performance. This illustrated volume, researched and
written by experts in the field, explores contemporary theatrical
documents (playbills, set designs, musical scores) and images
(paintings, prints and illustrations) in seeking to explain what
counted as history and historical truth for the writers, performers
and audiences of these plays. In doing so it debates the peculiar
contradictions of staging history and re-examines some spectacular
box office hits.
Dido and Aeneas has been one of the most compelling and durable
of the great classical myths. The material the story offers has led
artists, authors and musicians throughout the centuries to
appropriate - and misappropriate - the story for both artistic and
political ends.
Ten distinguished contributors from the fields of Fine Art,
History, English Literature, Classics and Music examine the myth
itself and the way in which it has been re-interpreted by later
authors. The volume opens with a consideration of the theatrical
aspects of Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, the character of Dido and
the appearances of Mercury, while later interpretations discussed
include the way the image of the Queen has been used in art, a play
by Marlowe, operas by Cavalli and Purcell, and seventeenth-century
English satire.
Michael Burden - the Editor of this stimulating volume - was
Lecturer in Music at New College, Oxford, from 1989, and since1995
has been Fellow in Opera Studies at New College. His research
interests are centred on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music,
particularly English opera.
A long overdue book on the master of the English Baroque, this
volume contains a group of fresh, new studies on aspects of the
composer's background, on his music and on performance practice.
Henry Purcell has been acknowledged as one of England's greatest
composers. Little is known about his life beyond his official
appointments and their duties, but as a musician he excelled as a
servant of the Court, the Church and the theatre, writing odes,
welcome songs, sonatas, anthems, service music, and a series of
operatic extravaganzas which fascinated the public during the
1690s. The Purcell Companion opens with four background chapters -
by Andrew Pinnock, Jonathan Wainwright, Graham Dixon and Michael
Burden - on his position in British musical history, on music in
London during his lifetime, on his Italian connections and on his
contemporaries. In the section on the music, Eric Van Tassel
presents a new view of the church music, Bruce Wood re-assesses the
odes, and Peter Holman writes perceptively about the instrumental
music. On the theatre works, Edward Langhans considers their
context, while Roger Savage studies the music for the operas and
plays. Finally, Andrew Parrott deals with aspects of performance.
An up-to-date bibliography details research undertaken on the
various aspects of Purcell's life and career. HARDCOVER.
Purcell was the greatest ornament of English music in the
seventeenth century, and has been a source of inspiration for
British composers ever since. Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten and
Peter Maxwell Davies are among those who have expressed
indebtedness to Purcell's musical genius. But his personality has
seemed shadowy; in Purcell's day there were no newspapers to
illuminate his career, no colour supplements to delve into his
sitting room. From the mass of assorted material that does exist,
Michael Burden has assiduously and cunningly devised a portrait of
the composer both in his time and since, using diaries, letters and
official and published writings from the seventeenth to the
twentieth centuries. Many pieces that are known in excerpts are
given here in full and placed in context, including all Purcell's
prefaces and dedications, collected together for the first time.
There is a comparative chronology of the period, a time of extreme
political fragility in England. The fragility of Purcell's own life
is bleakly evoked in the composer's final will, signed on the day
he died, aged 36. As the views of musicians from the three hundred
years since his death show, however, the 'English Orpheus' remains
a vital thread in his country's musical thought.
The thrust of these five volumes is contained in their title,
London Opera Observ'd. It takes its cue from the numerous texts and
volumes which - during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries - used the concept of 'spying' or 'observing' by a
narrator, or rambler, as a means of establishing a discourse on
aspects of London life. The material in this five-volume reset
edition examines opera not simply as a genre of performance, but as
a wider topic of comment and debate. The stories that surrounded
the Italian opera singers illuminate contemporary British attitudes
towards performance, sexuality and national identity. The
collection includes only complete, published material organised
chronologically so as to accurately retain the contexts in which
the original readers encountered them - placing an emphasis on rare
texts that have not been reproduced in modern editions. The aim of
this collection is not to provide a history of opera in England but
to facilitate the writing of them or to assist those wishing to
study topics within the field. Headnotes and footnotes establish
the publication information and provide an introduction to the
piece, its author, and the events surrounding it or which caused
its publication. The notes concentrate on attempting to identify
those figures mentioned within the texts. The approach is one of
presentation, not interpretation, ensuring that the collection
occupies a position that is neutral rather than polemical.
The thrust of these five volumes is contained in their title,
London Opera Observ'd. It takes its cue from the numerous texts and
volumes which - during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries - used the concept of 'spying' or 'observing' by a
narrator, or rambler, as a means of establishing a discourse on
aspects of London life. The material in this five-volume reset
edition examines opera not simply as a genre of performance, but as
a wider topic of comment and debate. The stories that surrounded
the Italian opera singers illuminate contemporary British attitudes
towards performance, sexuality and national identity. The
collection includes only complete, published material organised
chronologically so as to accurately retain the contexts in which
the original readers encountered them - placing an emphasis on rare
texts that have not been reproduced in modern editions. The aim of
this collection is not to provide a history of opera in England but
to facilitate the writing of them or to assist those wishing to
study topics within the field. Headnotes and footnotes establish
the publication information and provide an introduction to the
piece, its author, and the events surrounding it or which caused
its publication. The notes concentrate on attempting to identify
those figures mentioned within the texts. The approach is one of
presentation, not interpretation, ensuring that the collection
occupies a position that is neutral rather than polemical.
The thrust of these five volumes is contained in their title,
London Opera Observ'd. It takes its cue from the numerous texts and
volumes which - during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries - used the concept of 'spying' or 'observing' by a
narrator, or rambler, as a means of establishing a discourse on
aspects of London life. The material in this five-volume reset
edition examines opera not simply as a genre of performance, but as
a wider topic of comment and debate. The stories that surrounded
the Italian opera singers illuminate contemporary British attitudes
towards performance, sexuality and national identity. The
collection includes only complete, published material organised
chronologically so as to accurately retain the contexts in which
the original readers encountered them - placing an emphasis on rare
texts that have not been reproduced in modern editions. The aim of
this collection is not to provide a history of opera in England but
to facilitate the writing of them or to assist those wishing to
study topics within the field. Headnotes and footnotes establish
the publication information and provide an introduction to the
piece, its author, and the events surrounding it or which caused
its publication. The notes concentrate on attempting to identify
those figures mentioned within the texts. The approach is one of
presentation, not interpretation, ensuring that the collection
occupies a position that is neutral rather than polemical.
The thrust of these five volumes is contained in their title,
London Opera Observ'd. It takes its cue from the numerous texts and
volumes which - during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries - used the concept of 'spying' or 'observing' by a
narrator, or rambler, as a means of establishing a discourse on
aspects of London life. The material in this five-volume reset
edition examines opera not simply as a genre of performance, but as
a wider topic of comment and debate. The stories that surrounded
the Italian opera singers illuminate contemporary British attitudes
towards performance, sexuality and national identity. The
collection includes only complete, published material organised
chronologically so as to accurately retain the contexts in which
the original readers encountered them - placing an emphasis on rare
texts that have not been reproduced in modern editions. The aim of
this collection is not to provide a history of opera in England but
to facilitate the writing of them or to assist those wishing to
study topics within the field. Headnotes and footnotes establish
the publication information and provide an introduction to the
piece, its author, and the events surrounding it or which caused
its publication. The notes concentrate on attempting to identify
those figures mentioned within the texts. The approach is one of
presentation, not interpretation, ensuring that the collection
occupies a position that is neutral rather than polemical.
The thrust of these five volumes is contained in their title,
London Opera Observ'd. It takes its cue from the numerous texts and
volumes which - during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries - used the concept of 'spying' or 'observing' by a
narrator, or rambler, as a means of establishing a discourse on
aspects of London life. The material in this five-volume reset
edition examines opera not simply as a genre of performance, but as
a wider topic of comment and debate. The stories that surrounded
the Italian opera singers illuminate contemporary British attitudes
towards performance, sexuality and national identity. The
collection includes only complete, published material organised
chronologically so as to accurately retain the contexts in which
the original readers encountered them - placing an emphasis on rare
texts that have not been reproduced in modern editions. The aim of
this collection is not to provide a history of opera in England but
to facilitate the writing of them or to assist those wishing to
study topics within the field. Headnotes and footnotes establish
the publication information and provide an introduction to the
piece, its author, and the events surrounding it or which caused
its publication. The notes concentrate on attempting to identify
those figures mentioned within the texts. The approach is one of
presentation, not interpretation, ensuring that the collection
occupies a position that is neutral rather than polemical.
The Bear is an extravaganza in one act for three soloists and
orchestra, commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation in 1965 and
first performed at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1967. It is based on a
short story of Chekhov, with a libretto by Paul Dehn. The action
takes place in the drawing room of Madam Popova's house in the
country in 1888. Popova, a pretty widow affectedly faithful to the
memory of her late and, alas, promiscuous, husband is confronted by
Smirnov, one of her husband's more boorish creditors. They quarrel
to a point at which each aims a loaded pistol at the other, but
neither can fire. They have both fallen helplessly in love. This
new edition is based on a full assessment of all extant sources and
takes account of Walton's various revisions. A new vocal score is
also published on sale, and new orchestral material fully
compatible with this score is available for hire.
This volume is the first ever collection of Henry Purcell's opera texts. The much neglected `dramatick operas' or `semi-operas' are here edited in entirety, alongside Purcell's famous all-sung work, Dido and Aeneas, in both its 1689 form and its 1700 adaptation as a series of masques in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. Each opera has a short introduction explaining the circumstances of the composition of the work, and the sources of the opera text.
As Nicholas Kenyon says, quoting Ralph Vaughan Williams in the
introduction to this volume, 'We all pay lip service to Henry
Purcell, but what do we really know of him?'. Many aspects of the
composer's life remain obscure, but, with the approach of the
tercentenary of Henry Purcell's death in 1995, much of his music
would be performed again, in some cases for the first time for many
years. It was clear that many issues of performance practice needed
to be aired before 1995; further it was equally clear that such
discussion should begin early and should be available in published
form. To this end, a group of scholars and performers gathered at
Exeter College, Oxford in 1993 and the contents of this volume
represents some of the fruits of their deliberation. The first part
of the book considers purely musical issues, and covers a wide
range of topics. Peter Holman looks at the importance of the Oxford
set parts for Restoration Concerted Music in the overall picture of
orchestral practice in the seventeenth century. This is followed by
two organological essays, one on organs (Dominic Gwynne) and the
other on violins (John Dilworth). The remainder of this first
section has three studies of historical performance - on Percell's
"Exotic" trumpet notes (Peter Downey), on Queen Mary's Funeral
Music (Bruce Wood), and ornamenting Purcell's keyboard music (H
Diack Johnson) - and two concerning singers and singing - Purcell's
stage singers (Olive Baldwin and Thelma Wilson) and on voice
ranges, voice types and pitch (Timothy Morris). The second part of
the book, devoted to the stage works, opens with an examination of
past performances of the dramatic operas in Michael Burden's essay,
'Percell debauch'd'. Contributors then examine the importance of
allegory in performing stage works (Andrew Walkling), theatrical
dance (Richard Semmens), costume and etiquette (Ruth Eva Ronen),
stage music (Roger Savage), and aspects of performing Dioclesian
(Julia and Frans Muller) and King Arthur (Lionel Sawkins).
The essays in English Theatrical Anecdotes, 1660-1800 explore the
theatrical anecdote’s role in the construction of stage fame in
England’s emergent celebrity culture during the long eighteenth
century, as well as the challenges of employing such anecdotes in
theatre scholarship today. This collection showcases scholarship
that complicates the theatrical anecdote and shows its many sides
and applications beyond the expected comic punch. Discussing
anecdotal narratives about theatre people as producing,
maintaining, and sometimes toppling individual fame, this book
crucially investigates a key mechanism of celebrity in the long
eighteenth century that reaches into the nineteenth century and
beyond. The anecdote erases boundaries between public and private
and fictionalizing the individual in ways deeply familiar to
twenty-first century celebrity culture.
The essays in English Theatrical Anecdotes, 1660-1800 explore the
theatrical anecdote’s role in the construction of stage fame in
England’s emergent celebrity culture during the long eighteenth
century, as well as the challenges of employing such anecdotes in
theatre scholarship today. This collection showcases scholarship
that complicates the theatrical anecdote and shows its many sides
and applications beyond the expected comic punch. Discussing
anecdotal narratives about theatre people as producing,
maintaining, and sometimes toppling individual fame, this book
crucially investigates a key mechanism of celebrity in the long
eighteenth century that reaches into the nineteenth century and
beyond. The anecdote erases boundaries between public and private
and fictionalizing the individual in ways deeply familiar to
twenty-first century celebrity culture.
Regina Mingotti was the first female impresario to run London's
opera house. Born in Naples in 1722, she was the daughter of an
Austrian diplomat, and had worked at Dresden under Hasse from 1747.
Mingotti left Germany in 1752, and travelled to Madrid to sing at
the Spanish court, where the opera was directed by the great
castrato, Farinelli. It is not known quite how Francesco Vanneschi,
the opera promoter, came to hire Mingotti, but in 1754 (travelling
to England via Paris), she was announced as being engaged for the
opera in London 'having been admired at Naples and other parts of
Italy, by all the Connoisseurs, as much for the elegance of her
voice as that of her features'. Michael Burden offers the first
considered survey of Mingotti's London years, including material on
Mingotti's publication activities, and the identification of the
characters in the key satirical print 'The Idol'. Burden makes a
significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of
eighteenth-century singers' careers and status, and discusses the
management, the finance, the choice of repertory, and the pasticcio
practice at The King's Theatre, Haymarket during the middle of the
eighteenth century. Burden also argues that Mingotti's years with
Farinelli influenced her understanding of drama, fed her
appreciation of Metastasio, and were partly responsible for London
labelling her a 'female Garrick'. The book includes the important
publication of the complete texts of both of Mingotti's Appeals to
the Publick, accounts of the squabble between Mingotti and
Vanneschi, which shed light on the role a singer could play in the
replacement of arias.
inch....this work is likely to become a standart work very quickly
and is to be recommended to all schools where recorder studies are
undertaken inch. (Oliver James, Contact Magazine) A novel and
comprehensive approach to transferring from the C to F instrument.
430 music examples include folk and national songs (some in two
parts), country dance tunes and excerpts from the standard treble
repertoire ofBach, Barsanti, Corelli, Handel, Telemann, etc. An
outstanding feature of the book has proved to be Brian Bonsor's
brilliantly simple but highly effective practice circles and
recognition squares designed to give, in only a few minutes,
concentrated practice on the more usual leaps to and from each new
note and instant recognition of random notes. Quickly emulating the
outstanding success of the descant tutors, these books are very
popular even with those who normally use tutors other than the
Enjoy the Recorder series.
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