Description
Book SynopsisAn exploration of Jacques Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann". It investigates the political climate of the 1870's that influenced the composer's vision and the reception of his last work. Drawing upon insights, it considers how the opera's music and libretto took shape within a literary and theatrical tradition.
Trade Review"While Hadlock's reading of Hoffman against its sources affords many keen insights, her reading of the opera against itself is even more revealing... A work of scintillating intelligence and endlessly intriguing possibilities."--M. Lignana Rosenberg, Opera News "In keeping with Offenbach's hybrid work, this book moves freely across academic borders--alongside the opera's literary origins sit historical and biographical contexts, and intertwined with straightforward musicology is feminist theory and philosophy... If you love the opera, and are not frightened of some solid intellectual abstractions, here is something for your bookshelves."--Julia Hollander, Opera Now "[An] attractive study of Offenbach's most enduring opera... [L]overs of Offenbach's masterpiece will enjoy the ride ... garnering insights into one of the most enjoyable and problematic operas in the central repertory."--Byron Nelson, Opera Quarterly
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 3 Chapter One Telling the Tales 17 Chapter Two Mesmerizing Voices: Music, Medicine, and the Invention of Dr. Miracle 42 Chapter Three Song as Symptom: Antonia, Olympia, and the Prima Donna Mother 67 Chapter Four Offenbach, for Posterity 86 Chapter Five Reflections on the Venetian Act 113 Notes 135 Bibliographgy 149 Index 161
