{"product_id":"the-musical-world-of-marieantoinette-9781476684369","title":"The Musical World of MarieAntoinette","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e   For decades, eighteenth-century Paris had been declining into a baroque backwater. Spectacles at the opera, once considered fit for a king, had become hell for the ears, wrote playwright Carlos Goldoni. Then, in 1774, with the crowning of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, Paris became one of the world''s most vibrant musical centers.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e   Austrian composer Christophe-Willibald Gluck, protege of the queen, introduced a new kind of tragic opera--dramatic, human and closer to nature. The expressive pantomime known as \u003ci\u003eballet d''action\u003c\/i\u003e, forerunner of the modern ballet, replaced stately court dancing. Along the boulevards, people whistled lighter tunes from the Italian opera, where the queen''s favorite composer, Andre Modeste Gretry, ruled supreme.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e   This book recounts Gluck''s remaking of the grand operatic tragedy--long symbolic of absolute monarchy--and the vehement quarrels between those who embraced reform and those who preferred familiar baroque tunes or the\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"McFarland \u0026 Co Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51040489111895,"sku":"9781476684369","price":34.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781476684369.jpg?v=1750946913","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-musical-world-of-marieantoinette-9781476684369","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}