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Author: William Berger
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307542904
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 482
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Book Description
Puccini is the most beloved composer of opera in the world: one quarter of all opera performances in the U.S. are of his operas, his music pervades movie soundtracks, and his plots have infiltrated our popular culture. But, although Puccini’s art still captivates audiences and the popularity of such works as Tosca, La Bohéme, and Madama Butterfly has never waned, he has long been a victim of critical snobbery and cultural marginalization. In this witty and informative guide for beginners and fans alike, William Berger sets the record straight, reclaiming Puccini as a serious artist. Combining his trademark irreverent humor with passionate enthusiasm, Berger strikes just the right balance of introductory information and thought-provoking analysis. He includes a biography, discussions of each opera, a glossary, fun facts and anecdotes, and above all keen insight into Puccini’s enduring power. For anyone who loves Puccini and for anyone who just wonders what all the fuss is about, Puccini Without Excuses is funny, challenging, and always a pleasure to read. INCLUDES: • Why Puccini’s art and its message of hope is crucial to our world today • How Anglo audiences often miss the mythic significance of his operas • The use of his music as shorthand in films, from A Room with a View to Fatal Attraction • A scene-by scene analysis of each opera • A guide to the wealth of available recordings, books, and videos
Author: William Berger
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307542904
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Get Book Here
Book Description
Puccini is the most beloved composer of opera in the world: one quarter of all opera performances in the U.S. are of his operas, his music pervades movie soundtracks, and his plots have infiltrated our popular culture. But, although Puccini’s art still captivates audiences and the popularity of such works as Tosca, La Bohéme, and Madama Butterfly has never waned, he has long been a victim of critical snobbery and cultural marginalization. In this witty and informative guide for beginners and fans alike, William Berger sets the record straight, reclaiming Puccini as a serious artist. Combining his trademark irreverent humor with passionate enthusiasm, Berger strikes just the right balance of introductory information and thought-provoking analysis. He includes a biography, discussions of each opera, a glossary, fun facts and anecdotes, and above all keen insight into Puccini’s enduring power. For anyone who loves Puccini and for anyone who just wonders what all the fuss is about, Puccini Without Excuses is funny, challenging, and always a pleasure to read. INCLUDES: • Why Puccini’s art and its message of hope is crucial to our world today • How Anglo audiences often miss the mythic significance of his operas • The use of his music as shorthand in films, from A Room with a View to Fatal Attraction • A scene-by scene analysis of each opera • A guide to the wealth of available recordings, books, and videos
Author: Arman Schwartz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400884063
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 361
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Book Description
Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) is the world's most frequently performed operatic composer, yet he is only beginning to receive serious scholarly attention. In Giacomo Puccini and His World, an international roster of music specialists, several writing on Puccini for the first time, offers a variety of new critical perspectives on the composer and his works. Containing discussions of all of Puccini’s operas from Manon Lescaut (1893) to Turandot (1926), this volume aims to move beyond clichés of the composer as a Romantic epigone and to resituate him at the heart of early twentieth-century musical modernity. This collection’s essays explore Puccini’s engagement with spoken theater and operetta, and with new technologies like photography and cinema. Other essays consider the philosophical problems raised by "realist" opera, discuss the composer’s place in a variety of cosmopolitan formations, and reevaluate Puccini’s orientalism and his complex interactions with the Italian fascist state. A rich array of primary source material, including previously unpublished letters and documents, provides vital information on Puccini’s interactions with singers, conductors, and stage directors, and on the early reception of the verismo movement. Excerpts from Fausto Torrefranca’s notorious Giacomo Puccini and International Opera, perhaps the most vicious diatribe ever directed against the composer, appear here in English for the first time. The contributors are Micaela Baranello, Leon Botstein, Alessandra Campana, Delia Casadei, Ben Earle, Elaine Fitz Gibbon, Walter Frisch, Michele Girardi, Arthur Groos, Steven Huebner, Ellen Lockhart, Christopher Morris, Arman Schwartz, Emanuele Senici, and Alexandra Wilson.
Author: William Berger
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 037570518X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 514
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Book Description
Everything you could possibly know about Verdi and his operas, from the brilliant and humorous author of Wagner Without Fear. If you want to know why La traviata was actually a flop at its premiere in 1853, it's in here. If you want to know why claiming to have heard Bjorling's Chicago performance of Il trovatore is the classic opera fan faux pas, it's in here. Even if you just want to know how to pronounce Aida, or what the plot of Rigoletto is all about, this is the place to look. From the composer's intense hatred of priests to synopses of the operas and a detailed discography of the best recordings to buy, it can all be found in Verdi with a Vengeance. William Berger has given another improbable performance, serving up a book as thorough as it is funny and as original as it is astute, an utterly indispensable guide for novice and expert alike.
Author: Dianne Hales
Publisher: Broadway
ISBN: 0767927699
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 255
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Book Description
Follows the author's quest to learn Italian over twenty-five years and her study of the ties between the language and Italy's culture, literature, history, and food.
Author: William Berger
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307756343
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 466
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Book Description
Do you cringe when your opera-loving friends start raving about the latest production of Tristan? Do you feel faint just thinking about the six-hour performance of Parsifal you were given tickets to? Does your mate accuse you of having a Tannhäuser complex? If you're baffled by the behavior of Wagner worshipers, if you've longed to fathom the mysteries of Wagner's ever-increasing popularity, or if you just want to better understand and enjoy the performances you're attending, you'll find this delightful book indispensable. William Berger is the most helpful guide one could hope to find for navigating the strange and beautiful world of the most controversial artist who ever lived. He tells you all you need to know to become a true Wagnerite--from story lines to historical background; from when to visit the rest room to how to sound smart during intermission; from the Jewish legend that possibly inspired Lohengrin to the tragic death of the first Tristan. Funny, informative, and always a pleasure to read, Wagner Without Fear proves that the art of Wagner can be accessible to everyone. Includes: - The strange life of Richard Wagner--German patriot (and exile), friend (and enemy) of Liszt and Nietzsche - Essential opera lore and "lobby talk" - A scene-by-scene analysis of each opera - What to listen for to get the most from the music - Recommended recordings, films, and sound tracks
Author: William Forde Thompson
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1452283028
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 1350
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Book Description
This first definitive reference resource to take a broad interdisciplinary approach to the nexus between music and the social and behavioral sciences examines how music affects human beings and their interactions in and with the world. The interdisciplinary nature of the work provides a starting place for students to situate the status of music within the social sciences in fields such as anthropology, communications, psychology, linguistics, sociology, sports, political science and economics, as well as biology and the health sciences. Features: Approximately 450 articles, arranged in A-to-Z fashion and richly illustrated with photographs, provide the social and behavioral context for examining the importance of music in society. Entries are authored and signed by experts in the field and conclude with references and further readings, as well as cross references to related entries. A Reader's Guide groups related entries by broad topic areas and themes, making it easy for readers to quickly identify related entries. A Chronology of Music places material into historical context; a Glossary defines key terms from the field; and a Resource Guide provides lists of books, academic journals, websites and cross-references. The multimedia digital edition is enhanced with video and audio clips and features strong search-and-browse capabilities through the electronic Reader’s Guide, detailed index, and cross references. Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, available in both multimedia digital and print formats, is a must-have reference for music and social science library collections.
Author: Julian Budden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195346254
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 538
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Book Description
Julian Budden, one of the world's foremost scholars of Italian opera and author of a monumental three-volume study of Verdi's works, now offers music lovers a major new biography of one of the giants of Italian opera, Giacomo Puccini. Blending astute musical analysis with a colorful account of Puccini's life, here is an illuminating look at some of the most popular operas in the repertoire, including Manon Lescaut, La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. Budden provides an illuminating look at the process of putting an opera together, the cut-and-slash of nineteenth-century Italian opera--the struggle to find the right performers for the debut of La Boheme, Puccini's anxiety about completing Turandot (he in fact died of cancer before he did so), his animosity toward his rival Leoncavallo (whom he called Leonasino or "lion-ass"). Budden provides an informative analysis of the operas themselves, examining the music act by act. He highlights, among other things, the influence of Wagner on Puccini--alone among his Italian contemporaries, Puccini followed Wagner's example in bringing the motif into the forefront of his narrative, sometimes voicing the singer's unexpressed thoughts, sometimes sending out a signal to the audience of which the character is unaware. And Budden also paints an intriguing portrait of Puccini the man--talented but modest, a man who had friends from every walk of life: shopkeepers, priests, wealthy landowners, fellow artists. Affable, well mannered, gifted with a broad sense of fun, he rarely failed to charm all who met him. A new volume in the esteemed Master Musicians series, Puccini offers a masterful portrait of this beloved Italian composer.
Author: Holly Lynn Baumgartner
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9042024860
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
Hosting the Monster responds to the call of the monstrous with, not rejection, but invitation. Positing the monster as that which defies classification, the essays in this collection are an ongoing engagement with that which lies outside of established boundaries. With chapters ranging from the monstrous mother or the deformed child to subjectivity in transition, this volume is not only of interest to film and gender scholars and literary and cultural theorists but also students of popular culture or horror. Its wide appeal stems from its invitation both to entertain the monster and to widen the call to and the listening for the monsters that have not yet, and perhaps must not yet, come calling back. This sense of hospitality and non-hostility is one guiding principle of this collection, suggesting that the ability to survey and research the otherwise may reveal more about the subjectivity of the self through the wisdom of the other, however monstrous the manifestation. Holly Lynn Baumgartner is an associate professor of Humanities and English at Mercy College of Northwest Ohio. Her articles have appeared in Reflections, Rhizomes, American Book Review and other journals. Roger Davis is an instructor of English at MacEwan College in Edmonton, Canada. He is co-author of Essay Writing for Canadian Students and his literary interests include poetry, poetics and popular culture. Contents Preface Holly Lynn BAUMGARTNER and Roger DAVIS: Hosting the Monster: Introduction Duane W. KIGHT: ¿I Live in the Weak and the Wounded¿: The Monster of Brad Anderson¿s Session 9 Amaya MURUZÁBAL MURUZÁBAL: The Monster as a Victim of War: The Returning Veteran in The Best Years of Our Lives Lucy FIFE: Human Monstrosity: Rape, Ambiguity and Performance in Rosemary¿s Baby Inderjit GREWAL: The Monstrous and Maternal in Toni Morrison¿s Beloved Hannah PRIEST: The Witch and the Werewolf: Rebirth and Subjectivity in Medieval Verse Holly Lynn BAUMGARTNER: It¿s Never the Bass: Opera¿s True Transgressors Sing Soprano Katherine ANGELL: Joseph Merrick and the Concept of Monstrosity in Nineteenth Century Medical Thought Jessica WEBB: Herculine Barbin: Human Error, Criminality and the Case of the Monstrous Hermaphrodite Cecilia A. FEILLA: Literary Monsters: Gender, Genius, and Writing in Denis Diderot¿s `On Women¿ and Mary Shelley¿s Frankenstein Sorcha NÍ FHLAINN: Sweet, Bloody Vengeance: Class, Social Stigma and Servitude in the Slasher Genre. David M. KINGSLEY: It Came from Four-Colour Fiction: The Effect of Cold War Comic Books on the Fiction of Stephen King Liesbet DEPAUW: The Monsters that Failed to Scare: The Atypical Reception of the 1930s Horror Films in Belgium Roger DAVIS: ¿a white illusion of a man¿: Snowman, Survival and Speculation in Margaret Atwood¿s Oryx and Crake Notes on Contributors
Author: Manuel Cebral-Loureda
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000909034
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 410
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Book Description
The philosopher Spinoza once asserted that no one knows what a body can do, conceiving an intrinsic bodily power with unknown limits. Similarly, we can ask ourselves about Artificial Intelligence (AI): To what extent is the development of intelligence limited by its technical and material substrate? In other words, what can AI do? The answer is analogous to Spinoza’s: Nobody knows the limit of AI. Critically considering this issue from philosophical, interdisciplinary, and engineering perspectives, respectively, this book assesses the scope and pertinence of AI technology and explores how it could bring about both a better and more unpredictable future. What AI Can Do highlights, at both the theoretical and practical levels, the cross-cutting relevance that AI is having on society, appealing to students of engineering, computer science, and philosophy, as well as all who hold a practical interest in the technology.
Author: J.I. Miller
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 1496930061
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 179
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Book Description
From Saint James to Jim Beam bourbon, from King James to chocolate jimmies, from all the Jamestowns in the United States to one in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and from Jimmy Hoffa to Slim Jims with lots of stops between, this book takes on a jillion facets of Western civilization as we know it, all unifi ed by a common thread based on one of the most popular names ever given to baby boys. At times thought-provoking, at times downright funny, these lighthearted essays and observations are at all times lively reading. Being named Jim is not a prerequisite for enjoying this.
