Opera
- Author: Cannon, Robert
I would certainly want to own a copy
Opera
- Author: Cannon, Robert
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About
What is opera and how does it work? How has this dramatic form developed and what is its relevance in the modern world? Perfect for music students and opera-goers, this introductory guide addresses these questions and many more, exploring opera as a complete theatrical experience. Organised chronologically and avoiding technical musical terminology, the book clearly demonstrates how opera reflected and reacted to changes in the world around it. A special feature of the volume is the inclusion of illustrative tables throughout.
These provide detailed, easy to follow analysis of arias, scenes and acts; visual guides to historical movements; and chronologies relating to genres and individual composers' works. Overall, the book fosters an understanding of opera as a living form as it encounters and uses material from an ever expanding repertoire in time, place and culture.
Contents
- Introduction
- Part I :
- 1. Pre-operatic forms
- 2. First operatic forms: Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Keiser
- 3. Formalization
- 4. Reform - the reintegration of elements
- 5. Comedy and the 'real world'
- 6. 'Authentic' performance
- Part II :
- 7. Romanticism and romantic opera in Germany
- 8. Opera in nineteenth-century Italy
- 9. Grand Opera and the visual language of opera
- 10. The Wagnerian revolution
- 11. Nationalists: vernacular language and music
- 12. The role of the singer
- Part III :
- 13. The turn of the century and the crisis in opera
- 14. First modernism: symbolist and expressionist opera
- 15. The dramaturgy of opera: libretto - words and structure
- 16. Narrative opera: realistic and non-realistic
- 17. Radical narratives
- 18. Directors and the direction of opera
- Appendices: 1. Motifs from Der Ring
- 2. The development of singing voices
- 3. The development of lyric theatre alternatives to 'opera'
- 4. Some major operas, artistic and political events of the twentieth century
- Glossary of terms
- Bibliography.
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