
Brecht at the Opera
Joy H. Calico(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 17. September 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
300 pages
978-0-520-31426-9 (ISBN)
Description
From an award-winning author, the first thorough examination of the important influence of opera on Brecht's writings.
Brecht at the Opera looks at the German playwright's lifelong ambivalent engagement with opera. An ardent opera lover in his youth, Brecht later denounced the genre as decadent and irrelevant to modern society even as he continued to work on opera projects throughout his career. He completed three operas and attempted two dozen more with composers such as Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau. Joy H. Calico argues that Brecht's simultaneous work on opera and Lehrstueck in the 1920s generated the new concept of audience experience that would come to define epic theater, and that his revisions to the theory of Gestus in the mid-1930s are reminiscent of nineteenth-century opera performance practices of mimesis.
Brecht at the Opera looks at the German playwright's lifelong ambivalent engagement with opera. An ardent opera lover in his youth, Brecht later denounced the genre as decadent and irrelevant to modern society even as he continued to work on opera projects throughout his career. He completed three operas and attempted two dozen more with composers such as Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau. Joy H. Calico argues that Brecht's simultaneous work on opera and Lehrstueck in the 1920s generated the new concept of audience experience that would come to define epic theater, and that his revisions to the theory of Gestus in the mid-1930s are reminiscent of nineteenth-century opera performance practices of mimesis.
Reviews / Votes
"A noteworthy, compelling, and occasionally provocative addition to the vast body of literature about Brecht that even literary scholars would not want to miss perusing." * H-German * "An impressive book. . . .impeccably researched" * Comparative Drama * "Excellent. . . . Recommended." * Opera Journal * "Thoughtful and engaging . . . an impressive debut monograph, and an important one besides; it helps document, with elegance and sensitivity, Brecht's profound indebtedness and contribution to opera and musical theater. Hopefully, it will inspire other Brecht projects." -- Howard Pollack, * Opera Quarterly * "Brilliant scholarship. . . .does well beyond full justice both to Brecht and to opera." * Politische Traulichkeiten / Political Intimacies * "Joy Calico's new study of Brecht's work with, in, and against opera deserves to be celebrated across the scholarly spectrum of Brecht studies. Literary scholars will find a subtle, well-grounded, and revealing new exploration of Brecht's textual practices- including some new drafts and revisions of passages of text from his later opera projects that expand the available source material."* Brecht Yearbook * "[A] unique scholarly angle-a combination of musicology, performance studies, and cultural history-[which] generates a whole set of new perspectives and theories on Brecht's work and on 20th-century opera more generally. . . . The result is a study on Brecht that makes a strong case for a continued interest in this writer, and for the increasingly inter-disciplinary approach of a New Musicology." * German Quarterly * "[An] illuminating way to reconsider opera in the post-Brecht era." * Opera * "Demonstrates an astonishing breadth of familiarity with the critical literature, and is able to apply insights from it to her own investigations with uncommon lucidity. [Calico] has also done some excellent archival sleuthing." -- Stephen Luttmann, * Notes *
More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
2 tables, 18 music examples
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-31426-9 (9780520314269)
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 Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Joy H. Calico
Brecht at the Opera
E-Book
09/2023
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€38.99
Available for download
Person
Joy H. Calico is Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Musicology and Professor of German Studies at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Arnold Schoenberg's 'A Survivor from Warsaw' in Postwar Europe.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Lehrstueck, Opera, and the New Audience Contract of the Epic Theater
2. The Operatic Roots of Gestus in The Mother and Round Heads and Pointed Heads
3. Fragments of Opera in American Exile
4. Lucullus: Opera and National Identity
5. Brecht's Legacy for Opera: Estrangement and the Canon
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Lehrstueck, Opera, and the New Audience Contract of the Epic Theater
2. The Operatic Roots of Gestus in The Mother and Round Heads and Pointed Heads
3. Fragments of Opera in American Exile
4. Lucullus: Opera and National Identity
5. Brecht's Legacy for Opera: Estrangement and the Canon
Notes
Bibliography
Index