A Season of Opera

A Season of Opera PDF Author: M. Owen Lee
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802083876
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Father Lee is internationally known for his commentaries on opera. This book gathers his best commentaries and articles on 23 works for the musical stage, from the pioneering Orpheus of Monteverdi to the forward-looking Ariadne of Richard Strauss.

A Season of Opera

A Season of Opera PDF Author: M. Owen Lee
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802083876
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Father Lee is internationally known for his commentaries on opera. This book gathers his best commentaries and articles on 23 works for the musical stage, from the pioneering Orpheus of Monteverdi to the forward-looking Ariadne of Richard Strauss.

The Last Five Years

The Last Five Years PDF Author:
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 145843270X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
(Vocal Selections). Jason Robert Brown, the creator of Parade and Songs for a New World , has written a distinctive new Off-Broadway musical. The Last Five Years tells the story of a failed marriage of 20-somethings: he a successful novelist, she a struggling actress. Her story is told in reverse, his conventionally moving forward. They meet in the middle at the point of their wedding. Brown's strong writing has found a solid following among musical theatre fans. Our songbook features piano/vocal arrangements of 12 songs: Goodbye Until Tomorrow * I Can Do Better Than That * If I Didn't Believe in You * Moving Too Fast * The Next Ten Minutes * Nobody Needs to Know * A Part of That * The Schmuel Song * Shiksa Goddess * Still Hurting * A Summer in Ohio * When You Come Home to Me. "Short, bittersweet and nearly perfect, Brown has come up with a winning combination of music and book." Variety

Molto Agitato

Molto Agitato PDF Author: Johanna Fiedler
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1400032318
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
If the opera world is full of “intrigue, double meanings, and devious dramatics,” then no place exemplifies this more than the world-famous Metropolitan Opera, where politics, ambition, and oversized egos have traditionally taken center stage along with some of the world’s richest music. Drawing on her fifteen years as its press representative, Johanna Fiedler explodes the traditional secrecy that surrounds the Met in this wonderfully entertaining account of its tumuluous history. Fiedler chronicles the Met’s early days as a home for legends like Toscanini, Mahler, and Caruso, and gives a fascinating account of the middle years when haughty blue-bloods battled stubborn adminstrators for control of a company that would emerge as America’s premiere opera house. She takes us behind the grand gold-curtain stage in more recent years as well, showing how musical superstars like Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and Kathleen Battle have electrified performances and scandalized the public. But most revelatory are Fiedler’s portrayals of James Levine and Joseph Volpe and their practically parallel ascendancies—Levine rising from prodigy to artistic director, Volpe advancing from stagehand to general manager—and their once strained relationship. Weaving together the personal, economic, and artistic struggles that characterize the Met’s long and vibrant history, Molto Agitato is a must-read saga of power, wealth, and, above all, great music.

The Barefoot Book of Stories from the Opera

The Barefoot Book of Stories from the Opera PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781846860980
Category : Audiobooks
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Cenerentola handed Ramiro a bracelet. You will recognize me by the twin to this bracelet. If you still want me when you find me, I ll marry you.

A Knight at the Opera

A Knight at the Opera PDF Author: Rudolf Bing
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"'No matter how difficult their jobs are, the president of the United States and the mayor of New York don't have to deal with primma donnas.' So writes Sir Rudolf Bing, the renowned general manager of the Metropolitan Opera for twenty-two years. Every internationally famous diva of our time has crossed his spirited and autocratics path--among them, Birgit Nilsson, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, and, most pyrotechnically, Maria Callas. 'What am I to do with the dame?' he cried in the midst of their epistolary duel. 'My fear is that she wants me on my knees begging her to come, make all the arrangements and then cancel. I am not keen. Life is difficult enough.' Their legendary clash produced more Sturm und Drang than the Ring cycle. For the first time, in these pages, Sir Rudolf reveals the entire tempestuous episode. And this is only one story from a witty treasury of anecdotes chronicled in this outspoken sequel to his bestselling memoirs, 5,000 Nights at the Opera. With the devilish wit and unyielding dedication to maintaining the 'grand' in grand opera which has made him great, Sir Rudolf reveals what running the country's greatest opera company entails. He generously shares his personal beliefs and opinions of the stars, designers, directors, managements, boards of directors and his priceless impressions of opera--both yesterday and today. Filled with often amusing, sometimes poignant, always passionate recollections, A Knight at the Opera is a book that no one but Rudolf Bing could have written. As Garson Kanin states in his introduction, 'The present work is a souvenir, a gift to us, on his eightieth birthday. The number has no significance. Mr. Bing, Rudolf Bing, Sir Rudolf, Rudi, is--like his vision, his aspiration, his achievements--ageless.'" --Dust jacket.

Grand Opera

Grand Opera PDF Author: Charles Affron
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520958977
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
The Metropolitan has stood among the grandest of opera companies since its birth in 1883. Tracing the offstage/onstage workings of this famed New York institution, Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron tell how the Met became and remains a powerful actor on the global cultural scene. In this first new history of the company in thirty years, each of the chronologically sequenced chapters surveys a composer or a slice of the repertoire and brings to life dominant personalities and memorable performances of the time. From the opening night Faust to the recent controversial production of Wagner’s "Ring," Grand Opera is a remarkable account of management and audience response to the push and pull of tradition and reinvention. Spanning the decades between the Gilded Age and the age of new media, this story of the Met concludes by tipping its hat to the hugely successful "Live in HD" simulcasts and other twenty-first-century innovations. Grand Opera’s appeal extends far beyond the large circle of opera enthusiasts. Drawing on unpublished documents from the Metropolitan Opera Archives, reviews, recordings, and much more, this richly detailed book looks at the Met in the broad context of national and international issues and events.

Mad Scenes and Exit Arias

Mad Scenes and Exit Arias PDF Author: Heidi Waleson
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1627794972
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
From the Wall Street Journal's opera critic, a wide-ranging narrative history of how and why the New York City Opera went bankrupt—and what it means for the future of the arts In October 2013, the arts world was rocked by the news that the New York City Opera—“the people’s opera”—had finally succumbed to financial hardship after 70 years in operation. The company had been a fixture on the national opera scene—as the populist antithesis of the grand Metropolitan Opera, a nurturing home for young American talent, and a place where new, lively ideas shook up a venerable art form. But NYCO’s demise represented more than the loss of a cherished organization: it was a harbinger of massive upheaval in the performing arts—and a warning about how cultural institutions would need to change in order to survive. Drawing on extensive research and reporting, Heidi Waleson, one of the foremost American opera critics, recounts the history of this scrappy company and reveals how, from the beginning, it precariously balanced an ambitious artistic program on fragile financial supports. Waleson also looks forward and considers some better-managed, more visionary opera companies that have taken City Opera’s lessons to heart. Above all, Mad Scenes and Exit Arias is a story of money, ego, changes in institutional identity, competing forces of populism and elitism, and the ongoing debate about the role of the arts in society. It serves as a detailed case study not only for an American arts organization, but also for the sustainability and management of nonprofit organizations across the country.

Opera in America

Opera in America PDF Author: John Dizikes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300061017
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 611

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Book Description
This text tells how opera, steeped in European aristocratic tradition, was transplanted into the democratic cultural enviroment of America. It includes vignettes of productions, personalities, audiences and theatres throughout the country from 1735 to the present day.

Understanding Italian Opera

Understanding Italian Opera PDF Author: Tim Carter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190247959
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Opera is often regarded as the pinnacle of high art. A "Western" genre with global reach, it is where music and drama come together in unique ways, supported by stellar singers and spectacular scenic effects. Yet it is also patently absurd -- why should anyone break into song on the dramatic stage? -- and shrouded in mystique. In this engaging and entertaining guide, renowned music scholar Tim Carter unravels its many layers to offer a thorough introduction to Italian opera from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. Eschewing the technical musical detail that all too often dominates writing on opera, Carter begins instead where the composers themselves did: with the text. Walking readers through the relationship between music and poetry that lies at the heart of any opera, Carter then offers explorations of five of the most enduring and emblematic Italian operas: Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea; Handel's Julius Caesar in Egypt; Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro; Verdi's Rigoletto; and Puccini's La Bohème. Shedding light on the creative collusions and collisions involved in bringing opera to the stage, the various, and varying, demands of the text and music, and the nature of its musical drama, Carter also shows how Italian opera has developed over the course of music history. Complete with synopses, cast lists, and suggested further reading for each work discussed, Understanding Italian Opera is a must-read for anyone with an interest in and love for this glorious art.

Sing Me a Story

Sing Me a Story PDF Author: Jane Rosenberg
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 9780500278734
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
An illustrated retelling of the plots of fifteen well-known operas.