Author: Christopher Hibbert
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547350619
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
This colorful history of a powerful family brings the world they lived in—the glittering Rome of the Italian Renaissance—to life. The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame—Lucrezia Borgia, his daughter, whose husband was famously murdered by her brother, and that brother, Cesare, who inspired Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince. Notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder, the dynasty’s dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to its occupation of the highest position in Renaissance society forms a gripping tale. From the author of The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici and other acclaimed works, The Borgias and Their Enemies is “a fascinating read” (Library Journal).
Author: Gayden Wren
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195145144
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 416
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Book Description
Most books written about Gilbert & Sullivan have focused on the authors rather than the works. With this detailed examination of all fourteen operas, Gayden Wren fills this void. His bold thesis finds the key to the operas' longevity, not in the clever lyrics, witty dialogue, or catchy music, but in their timeless themes, which speak to audiences as powerfully now as they did the first time the operas were performed. This volume is essential reading for any devotee of these enchanting works, or indeed for anyone who loves musical theater.
Author: Keith Dockray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781557761
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 126
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Book Description
No musical partnership has enjoyed greater success during its time span than that of Gilbert and Sullivan in the later 19th century. No fewer than a dozen Savoy operas are still regularly performed. The operas present audiences with splendidly rich and satirical evocations of Victorian England and its society: the prime subject matter of this book!
Author: William S. Gilbert
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Christopher Hibbert
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 314
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Book Description
Not one of some seventy plays written by the most popular playwright of the English stage in Victoria's time is known to anyone but archivists today. That same fate befell the works of England's most honored composer of the period. His oratorios, odes, symphonic music, an opera--are all but silent now, save two incidental pieces (you have heard of them: "The Lost Chord" and "Onward Christian Soldiers"). But rarely have the serious works of contemporary geniuses more roundly flunked the test of time. Fame is fleeting. Yet join these two forgotten names with an ampersand, and you get Gilbert & Sullivan. Now fame is forever - or for a century and more, at least, and surely that's forever on a comic-opera stage. Gilbert & Sullivan revolutionized the theatre world, and to this day that world is a happier place because of their innovations. It was 1875 when Trial by Jury first dazzled London and (in a pirated version) New York audiences with the color and with and bounce of a Gilbert & Sullivan show. So the start of Gilbert & Sullivan's second century provides a fine occasion to look again at the story behind these amazing comic operas. The lives of William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) were as dramatic, amusing, far-fetched, throat-catching--and scenic--as their stagecraft. Beneath the two men's enormously popular collaborations were two hearts that beat as two. They simply did not get along. The trigger-tempered Gilbert, with his razor tongue and steady work habits, couldn't understand Sullivan's amiable procrastinations and easy social successes. Sullivan was convinced that his real genius was expressed by his prestigious music. Yet success after success forced the team to stay together for fifteen glorious years under the aegis of the polished Richard D'Oyly Carte. Then the whole thing blew up in a tragicomic quarrel about a carpet. If that plot resembles a Victorian romana a clef, so be it. Fictional romances exhibit no more posh settings, beautiful women, and crackling argument. There's even a touch of royalty, and a few absurdities, as well as a tragic climax. --from dust jacket.
Author: Kurt Gänzl
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438485476
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 389
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Book Description
In this, the first book to focus on the original cast members of the classic Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, world-renowned musical theater expert Kurt Gänzl provides a concise history of the writing and production of each opera, vividly colored by the often little-known life stories of these early performers. Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated with rare photographs, Gilbert and Sullivan: The Players and the Plays delves into the professional and personal lives of the British and American actors and singers who created the celebrated "famous fourteen" Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Carolyn Williams
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231148054
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 498
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Book Description
An examination of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, and how parody was used in the culture wars of late-nineteenth-century England.
Author: Sir Arthur Sullivan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Operas
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: William Aubrey Darlington
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gilbert, sir William schwenck, 1836
Languages : en
Pages : 188
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Book Description
