Opera and Its Stars

Opera and Its Stars PDF Author: Mabel Wagnalls
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Operas
Languages : en
Pages : 492

Get Book Here

Book Description

Opera and Its Stars

Opera and Its Stars PDF Author: Mabel Wagnalls
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Operas
Languages : en
Pages : 492

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Great Opera Stars in Historic Photographs

The Great Opera Stars in Historic Photographs PDF Author: James Camner
Publisher: New York : Dover Publications
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is a book devoted to photographs of opera singers: not operas, not opera houses, but the stars of opera, the personalities who bring operas to life and to whom audiences and composers owe an everlasting debt of gratitude. In assembling the photos, we tried to find as many examples of great and near-great singers as possible, dating back as early as possible. In general, we did not include singers whose careers began after World War II. - Introduction.

Opera and Its Symbols

Opera and Its Symbols PDF Author: Robert Donington
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300056617
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explains the use of symbolism in opera, interprets scenes from Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Stravinsky, and Britten, and stresses the importance of staging an opera in accord with the composer's intended use of symbols

The Limelight Book of Opera

The Limelight Book of Opera PDF Author: Arthur Jacobs
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9780879100445
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 564

Get Book Here

Book Description
Biographical sketches of the composers and critical interpretations of their productions accompany these summaries of eighty-seven famous operas

Sing Me a Story

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

Get Book Here

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

A History of Opera

A History of Opera PDF Author: Carolyn Abbate
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393089533
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 648

Get Book Here

Book Description
“The best single volume ever written on the subject, such is its range, authority, and readability.”—Times Literary Supplement Why has opera transfixed and fascinated audiences for centuries? Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker answer this question in their “effervescent, witty” (Die Welt, Germany) retelling of the history of opera, examining its development, the musical and dramatic means by which it communicates, and its role in society. Now with an expanded examination of opera as an institution in the twenty-first century, this “lucid and sweeping” (Boston Globe) narrative explores the tensions that have sustained opera over four hundred years: between words and music, character and singer, inattention and absorption. Abbate and Parker argue that, though the genre’s most popular and enduring works were almost all written in a distant European past, opera continues to change the viewer— physically, emotionally, intellectually—with its enduring power.

The New Book of Opera Anecdotes

The New Book of Opera Anecdotes PDF Author: Ethan Mordden
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190877685
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book Here

Book Description
Building on the continued success of Ethan Mordden's Opera Anecdotes, The New Book of Opera Anecdotes continues where the original left off, bringing into conversation the new corps of major stars that has arisen since the original book's 1985 publication, presenting completely new, fresh stories that cover the aesthetic and stylistic shifts this latest period has ushered in.

Opera & Ideas

Opera & Ideas PDF Author: Paul A. Robinson
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801494284
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
Opera and Ideas is a study of the connections between music and intellectual history. Through lucid analysis of six operas and two song cycles, Paul Robinson shows how operas give musical and dramatic expression to ideas about the self, society, and history.

A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera PDF Author: Sir Denis Forman
Publisher: Modern Library
ISBN: 0307807827
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 980

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Delightful and anti-reverential”—Sunday Times (London) With an encyclopedic knowledge of opera and a delightful dash of irreverence, Sir Denis Forman throws open the world of opera—its structure, composers, conductors, and artists—in this hugely informative guide. A Night at the Opera dissects the eighty-three most popular operas recorded on compact disc, from Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. For each opera, Sir Denis details the plot and cast of characters, awarding stars to parts that are “worth looking out for,” “really good,” or, occasionally, “stunning.” He goes on to tell the history of each opera and its early reception. Finally, each work is graded from alpha to gamma (although the Ring cycle gets an “X”), and Sir Denis has no qualms about voicing his opinion: the first act of Fidelio is “a bit of a mess,” while the last scene of Don Giovanni “towers above the comic finales of Figaro and Così and whether or not [it] is Mozart's greatest opera, it is certainly his most powerful finale.” The guide also presents brief biographies of the great composers, conductors, and singers. A glossary of musical terms is included, as well as Operatica, or the essential elements of opera, from the proper place and style of the audience's applause (and boos) to the use of subtitles. A Night at the Opera is for connoisseurs and neophytes alike. It will entertain and inform, delight and (perhaps) infuriate, providing a subject for lively debate and ready reference for years to come.

Understanding Italian Opera

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

Get Book Here

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.