Opera for the People

Opera for the People PDF Author: Katherine K. Preston
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199371652
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 649

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Book Description
Opera for the People is an in-depth examination of a forgotten chapter in American social and cultural history: the love affair that middle-class Americans had with continental opera (translated into English) in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. Author Katherine Preston reveals how-contrary to the existing historiography on the American musical culture of this period-English-language opera not only flourished in the United States during this time, but found its success significantly bolstered by the support of women impresarios, prima-donnas, managers, and philanthropists who provided financial backing to opera companies. This rich and compelling study details the lives and professional activities of several important players in American postbellum opera, including manager Effie Ober, philanthropist Jeannette Thurber, and performers/artistic directors Caroline Richings, Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa, Clara Louise Kellogg, and "the people's prima donna" Emma Abbott. Drawing from an impressive range of primary sources, including contemporaneous music and theater periodicals, playbills, memoirs, librettos, scores, and reviews and commentary on the performances in digitized newspapers, Preston tells the story of how these and other women influenced the activities of some of the more than one hundred opera companies touring the United States during the second half of the 19th century, performing opera in English for a diverse range of audiences. Countering a pervasive and misguided historical understanding of opera reception in the United States-unduly influenced by modern attitudes about the genre as elite, exclusive, expensive, and of interest only to a niche market-Opera for the People demonstrates the important (and hitherto unsuspected) place of opera in the rich cornucopia of late-century American musical theatre, which would eventually lead to the emergence of American musical comedy.

Opera for the People

Opera for the People PDF Author: Katherine K. Preston
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199371652
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 649

Get Book Here

Book Description
Opera for the People is an in-depth examination of a forgotten chapter in American social and cultural history: the love affair that middle-class Americans had with continental opera (translated into English) in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. Author Katherine Preston reveals how-contrary to the existing historiography on the American musical culture of this period-English-language opera not only flourished in the United States during this time, but found its success significantly bolstered by the support of women impresarios, prima-donnas, managers, and philanthropists who provided financial backing to opera companies. This rich and compelling study details the lives and professional activities of several important players in American postbellum opera, including manager Effie Ober, philanthropist Jeannette Thurber, and performers/artistic directors Caroline Richings, Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa, Clara Louise Kellogg, and "the people's prima donna" Emma Abbott. Drawing from an impressive range of primary sources, including contemporaneous music and theater periodicals, playbills, memoirs, librettos, scores, and reviews and commentary on the performances in digitized newspapers, Preston tells the story of how these and other women influenced the activities of some of the more than one hundred opera companies touring the United States during the second half of the 19th century, performing opera in English for a diverse range of audiences. Countering a pervasive and misguided historical understanding of opera reception in the United States-unduly influenced by modern attitudes about the genre as elite, exclusive, expensive, and of interest only to a niche market-Opera for the People demonstrates the important (and hitherto unsuspected) place of opera in the rich cornucopia of late-century American musical theatre, which would eventually lead to the emergence of American musical comedy.

Opera 101

Opera 101 PDF Author: Fred Plotkin
Publisher: Hyperion
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Written by an opera insider and featuring an introduction by Placido Domingo, here is a thorough, friendly, and truly complete guide to learning how to love and appreciate the opera. After a brief history of opera, the book includes a guide to operatic terms, a minute-by-minute listener's guide to 11 central works, a list of recommended books and recordings and much more.

Sing for Your Life

Sing for Your Life PDF Author: Daniel Bergner
Publisher: Hachette+ORM
ISBN: 0316300659
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
The New York Times bestseller about a young black man's journey from violence and despair to the threshold of stardom: "A beautiful tribute to the power of good teachers" (Terry Gross, Fresh Air). "One of the most inspiring stories I've come across in a long time."-Pamela Paul, New York Times Book Review Ryan Speedo Green had a tough upbringing in southeastern Virginia: his family lived in a trailer park and later a bullet-riddled house across the street from drug dealers. His father was absent; his mother was volatile and abusive. At the age of twelve, Ryan was sent to Virginia's juvenile facility of last resort. He was placed in solitary confinement. He was uncontrollable, uncontainable, with little hope for the future. In 2011, at the age of twenty-four, Ryan won a nationwide competition hosted by New York's Metropolitan Opera, beating out 1,200 other talented singers. Today, he is a rising star performing major roles at the Met and Europe's most prestigious opera houses. Sing for Your Life chronicles Ryan's suspenseful, racially charged and artistically intricate journey from solitary confinement to stardom. Daniel Bergner takes readers on Ryan's path toward redemption, introducing us to a cast of memorable characters -- including the two teachers from his childhood who redirect his rage into music, and his long-lost father who finally reappears to hear Ryan sing. Bergner illuminates all that it takes -- technically, creatively -- to find and foster the beauty of the human voice. And Sing for Your Life sheds unique light on the enduring and complex realities of race in America.

Black Opera

Black Opera PDF Author: Naomi Andre
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252050614
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
From classic films like Carmen Jones to contemporary works like The Diary of Sally Hemings and U-Carmen eKhayelitsa, American and South African artists and composers have used opera to reclaim black people's place in history. Naomi André draws on the experiences of performers and audiences to explore this music's resonance with today's listeners. Interacting with creators and performers, as well as with the works themselves, André reveals how black opera unearths suppressed truths. These truths provoke complex, if uncomfortable, reconsideration of racial, gender, sexual, and other oppressive ideologies. Opera, in turn, operates as a cultural and political force that employs an immense, transformative power to represent or even liberate. Viewing opera as a fertile site for critical inquiry, political activism, and social change, Black Opera lays the foundation for innovative new approaches to applied scholarship.

The House

The House PDF Author: Helen Pitt
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1760636665
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
The extraordinary story of the 20th century's most recognisable building, with new insights into the people involved and the controversy that surrounded its construction. Winner of the 2018 Walkley Book Award The best-loved building in Australia nearly didn't get off the drawing board. When it did, the lives of everyone involved in its construction were utterly changed: some for the better, many for the worse. Helen Pitt tells the stories of the people behind the magnificent white sails of the Sydney Opera House. From the famous conductor and state premier who conceived the project; to the two architects whose lives were so tragically intertwined; to the workers and engineers; to the people of Sydney, who were alternately beguiled and horrified as the drama unfolded over two decades. With access to diaries, letters, and classified records, as well as her own interviews with people involved in the project, Helen Pitt reveals the intimate back story of the building that turned Sydney into an international city. It is a tale worthy of Shakespeare himself. 'A drama-filled page turner' - Ita Buttrose AO OBE 'Helen Pitt tells us so much about the building of the Sydney Opera House we've never heard before' - Bob Carr, former Premier of NSW 'Australia in the seventies: mullets, platform shoes and, miraculously, the Opera House. At least we got one of them right. A great read.' - Amanda Keller, WSFM breakfast presenter

Fire Shut Up in My Bones

Fire Shut Up in My Bones PDF Author: Charles M. Blow
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544228049
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
A respected journalist describes the abuse he suffered at the hands of a close family relative, the effect this had on his formative years and how he overcame the anger and self-doubt it left behind.

Opera After the Zero Hour

Opera After the Zero Hour PDF Author: Emily Richmond Pollock
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190063734
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
'Opera After the Zero Hour' argues that newly composed opera in West Germany after World War II was a site for the renegotiation of musical traditions during an era in which tradition had become politically fraught.

Blacks in Opera

Blacks in Opera PDF Author: Eric Ledell Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
1787 to 1815 was a turbulent period for the Jewish community in the Netherlands. Compared with other cities, Amsterdam had a relatively large Jewish minority. In fact, Amsterdam contained more Jews within its boundaries than any other municipality in Europe. They enjoyed complete freedom of religion, but economic discrimination left the majority of them penniless. Moreover, a bitter internal conflict broke out between the enlightened and the orthodox Jews, leading to a fierce controversy and the foundation of a separate congregation. The Emancipation Decree issued under the influence of the French (1796), and the efforts of King Louis Bonaparte and King William I to integrate the Jewish community into Dutch society, failed to be effective during most of this period: the large Ashkenazic majority within the Dutch Jewish community refused to yield to the authorities' integrationist policy. This book offers a new and original analysis of both the political, economical, religious and literary aspects of this fascinating and tumultuous era.

My Lord, what a Morning

My Lord, what a Morning PDF Author: Marian Anderson
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252070532
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
My Lord, What a Morning is a gentle and engrossing memoir, abounding with the tender and inspiring stories of Marian Anderson's life in her own modest words. From her humble but proud beginnings in south Philadelphia to international vocal renown, the legendary contralto writes of triumph and adversity, of being grounded in faith and surrounded by family, and of the music that shaped her career. Anderson published My Lord, What a Morning in 1956 on the heels of her groundbreaking role as the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. In it are bittersweet reminiscences of a working-class childhood, from her first job scrubbing the neighbors' steps to the sorrow and upheaval of her father's untimely death. Here are the stories of a young girl with prodigious talent, and her warm remembrances of the teachers, managers, friends, accompanists, and fans who worked to foster it. Here is a veritable travelogue of her concerts across the globe and rare glimpses at the personal life of a woman more concerned with family than celebrity. An entire chapter devoted to the Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 reveals Anderson's immense respect for Eleanor Roosevelt, who resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution when they refused to let Anderson perform at Constitution Hall. Supplanting sorrow and regret for anger and violence, Anderson demurely imparts her views on discrimination and on becoming an icon in the struggle for civil rights. With eleven photographs and a touching new foreword by Anderson's nephew, famed conductor and poet James DePreist, this new paperback edition of My Lord, What a Morning revives the classic portrait of a musical legend who was resilient in the bullying face of bigotry and gracious in the unfaltering glow of fame.

Opera Cat

Opera Cat PDF Author: Tess Weaver
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618096350
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
When the opera diva Madame SoSo gets laryngitis, her singing cat Alma fills in for her.