Description
Book SynopsisMusic and meaning in Puccini's last works
Trade ReviewConversant in a wide range of disciplines, Davis has contributed an important addition to the field of Puccini studies and 19th-century Italian opera literature. . . . Recommended.
* Choice *
[T]o undertake analyses of four operas in one book is no easy task, but [Davis] accomplishes it adeptly. Despite potential contradictions in the identification of his proposed style characteristics, his analyses are insightful, challenging the reader to hear these operas in new ways. He has made tangible aspects of Puccini's music dramas that we may take for granted as intuitive, illuminating how dramatic moments move us and interact with the work as a whole.
* Music Theory Online *
[I] applaud Davis for his close readings of this much-loved but insufficiently studied repertoire, and for the pluralism of his methodology, which is in keeping with Puccini's seemingly conscious exploration of multiple styles, formal traditions, and harmonic dialects. . . The book deserves a wide readership for the important questions it answers, and for the additional questions it raises that call for further research.Dec 2012
* Nineteenth-Century Music Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Note on Scores, Librettos, and Translations
Introduction: Hearing Puccini
1. Stylistic Plurality, Narrative, Levels of Discourse, and Voice
2. The Romantic Style in Late Puccini
3. Expressive Uses of Convention in Il tabarro
4. Formal Multivalence in Suor Angelica
5. Humor and Filmic Effects in the Structure of Gianni Schicchi
6. Puccini's Solution: Integrating the Conventional and Unconventional
Epilogue: Late Style and Puccini
Notes
Bibliography
Index
