Opera Books
Cambridge University Press The Puccini Problem Opera Nationalism and Modernity Cambridge Studies in Opera
Book SynopsisA detailed investigation of the reception and cultural contexts of Puccini's music, this book offers a fresh view of this historically important but frequently overlooked composer. Wilson's study explores the ways in which Puccini's music and persona were held up as both the antidote to and the embodiment of the decadence widely felt to be afflicting late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Italy, a nation which although politically unified remained culturally divided. The book focuses upon two central, related questions that were debated throughout Puccini's career: his status as a national or international composer, and his status as a traditionalist or modernist. In addition, Wilson examines how Puccini's operas became caught up in a wide range of extra-musical controversies concerning such issues as gender and class. This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of both the history of opera and of the wider artistic and intellectual life of turn-of-the-century ItalyTrade ReviewReview of the hardback: 'As accessible as Puccini's music itself … a book that can engage both scholars and the opera-going public.' Musical TimesReview of the hardback: 'Extensively researched and intelligently argued … a fine addition to the Puccini bibliography.' Opera Magazine'It's a rare occasion when a scholar taps into the mother lode, but Alexandra Wilson has done just that with The Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism, and Modernity. And she has done it exceptionally well. … The book is packed with interesting and important information, observations that moved me to take out a pencil and underline nearly every sentence.' Music & Letters'There is no better time … for a historical reflection on what Alexandra Wilson describes in her excellent new book as The Puccini Problem … Wilson's book on the cultural context of Puccini's music and the response to it presents a very welcome contribution to the field.' The Opera Quarterly'A very enjoyable read … Wilson's The Puccini Problem is a rich investigation of how a major cultural figure's impact cannot be divorced from a complex and dynamic understanding of his time. As such, it is a compelling book not only for musicologists and music critics, but for anyone interested in the history and culture of modern Italy in its European context.' Cambridge Opera JournalTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Inventing an Italian composer; 2. La bohème: organicism, progress and the press; 3. Tosca: truth and lies; 4. A frame without a canvas: Madama Butterfly and the superficial; 5. Torrefranca vs. Puccini; 6. The Italian composer as internationalist; 7. A suitable ending?; Epilogue; Appendix I. Selected newspapers and journals; Appendix 2. personalia.
£37.99
Cambridge University Press Wagner Rehearsing the Ring An EyeWitness Account of the Stage Rehearsals of the First Bayreuth Festival
Book SynopsisThis book presents Wagner's view of how the Ring should be performed. He requested Heinrich Porges, a member of his circle, to 'follow all my rehearsals very closely and note down everything I say, even the smallest details, about the interpretation and performance, so that a tradition goes down in writing'. In the opinion of the eminent Wagner scholar, Curt von Westernhagen, Porges conscientious record shows 'amazing insight and perception' since what distinguishes it is his 'ability to always locate the endless detail of Wagner's instructions in an overall intellectual context'. The book is therefore required reading not only for conductors, producers, instrumentalists and singers but also for musicologists and critics. In addition it is a fascinating read for anyone who knows and loves the Ring since it takes the form of a blow-by-blow commentary on the stage action as it unfolds. The writing has vitality and flow and one is caught up in the spirit of the thing as Wagner felt it. ItTable of ContentsTranslator's Preface; Introduction; Das Rheingold; Die Walkure; Siefried; Gotterdammerung.
£37.99
Cambridge University Press North German Opera in the Age of Goethe
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£46.54
Cambridge University Press Wagner and Aeschylus The Ring and the Oresteia
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£37.99
Cambridge University Press The Transvestite Achilles
Book SynopsisStatius' unfinished epic, the Achilleid, explores Achilles' mother's attempt to save her son from the Trojan War by dressing him as a girl. This first book-length study of the poem offers a detailed interpretation and explores questions of the poem's reception and of gender in antiquity.Trade Review'… a welcome addition to the ever-increasing number of scholarly works devoted to elucidating the subtle politics and sophisticated poetics of imperial Latin epic … animated throughout … a significant contribution to Latin literary studies in this stimulating volume.' A. M. Keith, Victoria College'[The author's] profound familiarity with classical literature enables him to approach the issue from a wide perspective and pay attention to versatile conventions and details. Through structural and linguistic analysis the author is able to expose Statius' subtle and humoristic treatment of classical literature. … Heslin's profound orientation on the subject enables the reader to consider the Achilleid not only as a successful epic narrative, but also as a reflection of the whole range of classical literature preceding the imperial era - a respectful nod to the great classical authors, and a witty parody of genre-related clichés. … All in all, Heslin's survey is an admirable pursuit to fill the void concerning the study of the Achilleid by classical scholars.' De novis libris iudiciaTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Opening nights at the opera 1641–1741; 2. The design of the Achilleid; 3. Womanhood, rhetoric, and performance; 4. Semivir, Semifer, Semideus; 5. Transvestism in myth and ritual; 6. Rape, repetition, and romance; 7. Conclusion.
£42.74
Cambridge University Press Opera in the Novel from Balzac to Proust Cambridge Studies in Opera
Book SynopsisThe turning point of Madame Bovary, which Flaubert memorably set at the opera, is only the most famous example of a surprisingly long tradition, one common to a range of French literary styles and sub-genres. In the first book-length study of that tradition to appear in English, Cormac Newark examines representations of operatic performance from Balzac's La ComÃdie humaine to Proust's à la recherche du temps perdu, by way of (among others) Dumas pÃre's Le Comte de Monte-Cristo and Leroux's Le FantÃme de l'OpÃra. Attentive to textual and musical detail alike in the works, the study also delves deep into their reception contexts. The result is a compelling cultural-historical account: of changing ways of making sense of operatic experience from the 1820s to the 1920s, and of a perennial writerly fascination with the recording of that experience.Trade Review'With an obvious and informed enthusiasm for the subject, Newark balances literary and musicological considerations with quite and persuasive authority … casts revealing light on a significant period in the development of opera.' OperaTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Balzac, Meyerbeer and science; 2. 'Tout entier?': scenes from grand opéra in Dumas and Balzac; 3. The novel in opera: residues of reading in Flaubert; 4. Knowing what happens next: opera in Verne; 5. 'Vous qui faites l'endormie': the Phantom and the buried voices of the Paris Opéra; 6. Proust and the soirée à l'Opéra chez soi; Envoi; Bibliography.
£78.84
Cambridge University Press The Prima Donna and Opera 18151930 Cambridge Studies in Opera
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£42.74
Cambridge University Press Opera and Society in Italy and France from Monteverdi to Bourdieu Cambridge Studies in Opera
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£37.04
Cambridge University Press Wagner and the Romantic Hero
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£37.99
Cambridge University Press Rossini in Restoration Paris The Sound of Modern Life Cambridge Studies in Opera
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£37.99
Cambridge University Press French Grand Opera and the Historical Imagination
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£37.99
Cambridge University Press German Opera From the Beginnings to Wagner Cambridge Studies in Opera
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£115.90
Cambridge University Press Giuseppe Verdi Otello Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Wagner A Biography
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£38.52
Cambridge University Press Alban Berg Lulu Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Giacomo Puccini Tosca Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press W A Mozart Don Giovanni Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press The Story of Giuseppe Verdi Oberto to Un Ballo in Maschera
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£29.44
Cambridge University Press Leos Janacek Kata Kabanova Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£34.19
Cambridge University Press Verdi in the Age of Italian Romanticism
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£38.52
Cambridge University Press W A Mozart Die Zauberflote Author Peter Branscombe published on July 1991
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£22.99
Cambridge University Press Richard Strauss Arabella
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£29.44
Cambridge University Press Kurt Weill Threepenny Opera The Threepenny Opera Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£23.99
Cambridge University Press Czech Opera National Traditions of Opera
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£45.59
Cambridge University Press Hector Berlioz Les Troyens Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£22.99
Cambridge University Press Opera in Portugal in the Eighteenth Century
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£71.25
Cambridge University Press Richard Strauss Salome Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Modest Musorgsky and Boris Godunov Myths Realities Reconsiderations Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£126.35
Cambridge University Press Modest Musorgsky and Boris Godunov Myths Realities Reconsiderations Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£23.74
Cambridge University Press Benjamin Britten Billy Budd Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Stravinsky Oedipus Rex Cambridge Music Handbooks
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£50.35
Cambridge University Press Stravinsky Oedipus Rex Cambridge Music Handbooks
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£19.49
Cambridge University Press Wagners Musical Prose Texts and Contexts 3 New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism Series Number 3
Book SynopsisThis book is a study of the prose writings of Richard Wagner and their relevance to an understanding of his music and drama, as well as their relation to music criticism and aesthetics in the nineteenth century in general. As a by-product of Wagner's many-faceted career as musician, conductor, cultural critic and controversial ideologue, the writings are documents of undisputed interpretative value. This study focuses on Wagner's words on music, and interprets them in the light of the musical, aesthetic and critical contexts that generated them. Professor Grey considers Wagner's ambivalence concerning the idea of 'absolute music' and the capacity of music to project meaning or drama from within its own system of referents. Particularly relevant are Wagner's appropriation of a Beethoven legacy, the metaphors of musical 'gender' and 'biology' in Opera and Drama and the critical background to ideas of 'motive' and 'leitmotif' in theory and practice.Trade Review"...we are very fortunate to have this new study, which deals with Wagner's writings in an intelligent, authoritative, and probing manner. Thomas S. Grey seems to have read not only everything Wagner wrote but everything written about him from his own day to the present and about the principle aesthetic issues relevant to the Wagner `case.'...the scope and command of Grey's book is...magisterial." The Opera Quarterly"This is a serious study that no Wagnerian scholar should ignore." Warren Darcy, NotesTable of ContentsPreface; 1. Wagner and the problematics of 'absolute music' in the nineteenth century; 2. Beethoven reception and the hermeneutic impulse: 'poetic ideas' and new forms; 3. Engendering music drama: Opera and Drama and its metaphors; 4. The 'poetic-musical period' and the 'evolution' of Wagnerian form; 5. Endless melodies; 6. Motive and motivations: leitmotif and 'symphonic' drama; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.
£110.20
Cambridge University Press Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£71.65
Cambridge University Press Mozart Cosi Fan Tutte Cos Fan Tutte Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Wagner and Russia Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature
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£99.75
Cambridge University Press Richard Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Ludwig van Beethoven Fidelio Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Opera and the Enlightenment
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£75.00
Cambridge University Press Italian Opera National Traditions of Opera
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£45.16
Cambridge University Press The Life of Musorgsky Musical Lives
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£22.99
Cambridge University Press Vincenzo Bellini Norma Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99
Cambridge University Press Verdi and the Germans From Unification to the Third Reich New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism Series Number 26
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£71.25
Cambridge University Press The Nations Image
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£37.99
Cambridge University Press The Cambridge Companion to SeventeenthCentury Opera
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£22.99
Cambridge University Press Opera Buffa in Mozarts Vienna Cambridge Studies in Opera
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£125.10
Cambridge University Press Richard Wagner Der Fliegende Hollander Cambridge Opera Handbooks
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£19.99