Cole Porter (1891-1964) remains one of America's most popular composer-songwriters, known for the many urbane, witty, romantic songs he wrote for stage musicals and Hollywood films. Porter was unique among his contemporaries for writing both the music and lyrics for his compositions. To this day, several of his numbers-"Night and Day," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "You're the Top," and "I Get a Kick Out of You," to name a few-endure as standards.
In The Musicals of Cole Porter: Broadway, Hollywood, Television, Bernard F. Dick presents a critical study of Porter's Broadway and movie musicals, and his one foray into live television, Aladdin-covering the period from his first failure, See America First (1916), to the moderately successful Silk Stockings (1955), which ended his Broadway career. Taking a chronological approach, interspersed with chapters on Porter's "list songs" that owe much to such operas as Mozart's Don Giovanni and Rossini's The Barber of Seville; his love songs, often bittersweet and bleakly poignant; and, above all, his love of figurative language, Dick discusses in detail the various literary sources and cultural reference points that inspired the lyrics to Porter's numbers. The first volume of its kind exclusively dedicated to exploring the extensive body of work by this influential twentieth-century songwriter, The Musicals of Cole Porter is a compelling resource for students and scholars interested in the craft of a great composer-lyricist.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"An original, intelligent, fascinating study of Porter's creative process and technique. - James Robert Parish, coauthor of The MGM Stock Company: The Golden Era Bernard F. Dick's deep dive into the work of Cole Porter is a skillful blend of musical theater history, biography, and astute literary analysis that sheds new light on Porter's dazzling contribution to twentieth-century popular culture. By studying Porter's lyrics as poetry and exploring his influences from Greek mythology and Shakespeare to Gilbert and Sullivan, Dick shows how Porter transformed musical theater and popular song with his witty and sophisticated command of language and his daring exploration of genres and themes. Informed by both original research and personal insights, Dick's masterful examination of Porter's prolific career, including both his successes and his failures on stage and screen, is a window on to the work of one of the most singular talents of the American theater." - Barbara Hall, coeditor of Letters from Hollywood: Inside the Private World of Classic American Moviemaking
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Für Beruf und Forschung
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 231 mm
Breite: 157 mm
Dicke: 26 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-4968-5612-8 (9781496856128)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Bernard F. Dick is professor of communication and English at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is author of many books, including The Golden Age Musicals of Darryl F. Zanuck: The Gentleman Preferred Blondes; That Was Entertainment: The Golden Age of the MGM Musical; The Screen Is Red: Hollywood, Communism, and the Cold War; The President's Ladies: Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis; Hollywood Madonna: Loretta Young; Forever Mame: The Life of Rosalind Russell; and Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty, all published by University Press of Mississippi.
