Opera
A History in Documents
Published in February 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-19-511638-0 (ISBN)
Description
Opera: A History in Documents collects over one hundred primary-source documents for students of the history of opera. The varied selections - which include letters, excerpts of journals, bits of libretti, and contemporary criticism - provide eye-witness commentary on the world of opera from its late-Renaissance infancy through modern times. Each selection is introduced by an extensive headnote that both explains the document's context and positions it in the book's overall narrative.
Reviews / Votes
... a most coherent, elegant, and perceptive survey of four centuries of operatic debate. This volume is a priceless addition to the literature, and the pages of my copy are already dog-eared from constant use. Music and Letters Opera: A History in Documents comes as treasure trove to the fan ... crisp, informative intros to each entry ... The extracts relating to theatres and performance are fascinating ... no true lover of opera can afford to be without this invaluable collection. Opera Now Weiss's book is a Jack Horner's pie full of plums, familiar and unfamiliar, many of them freshly and elegantly translated by Weiss himself ... a valuable and enjoyable book. Opera Weiss is head of the musicology department at John Hopkins, and the anthology that he has compiled makes up a history of opera that is learned, quirky, disjointed, spiced with the unexpected and the diversionary, and sometimes very funny; everything, in fact, that such a collection should be. Opera Excellent compilation ... a rich offering ... for students and intelligent opera lovers, the material on the operas selected will rapidly become indispensable BBC Music MagazineMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
halftones
halftones
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
523 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-511638-0 (9780195116380)
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
Content
1. Preface ; 2. The Medici Wedding Festivities of 1589 ; 3. Pietro Bardi on the Birth of Opera ; 4. L'Euridice, The Second Opera ; 5. Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo ; 6. Monteverdi Criticizes a Libretto ; 7. Sant'Alessio at the Barberini Palace, Rome ; 8. Opera Comes to Venic and Goes Public ; 9. Lully is Granted a Monopoly on Opera in French ; 10. Le Grand Siecle Absorbs La Tragedie en Musique ; 11. Saint-Evremond's View on Opera ; 12. The First English Operas ; 13. Handel's Rinaldo at the Haymarket Theater ; 14. Pier Jacopo Martello on Opera ; 15. The President de Brosses in Italy ; 16. Metastasio on Setting Dramatic Recitative to Music ; 17. From Rousseau's Confessions ; 18. The War of the Buffoons ; 19. Interlude: A Travelling Company ; 20. Operatic Reform in Vienna: Gluck and Calzabigi ; 21. Gluck in Paris ; 22. Mozart at Work on Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail ; 23. Gretry's Richard Couer-de-Lion ; 24. The Making of Le Nozze di Figaro ; 25. Kierkegaard's Don Giovanni ; 26. Fidelio in 1806 ; 27. Berlioz's Estimate of Spontini ; 28. E. T. A. Hoffman on "Music Drama that Springs from the Heart" ; 29. The First Performance of Il Barbiere di Siviglia ; 30. Der Freischutz: A german Triumph ; 31. Parisian Grand Opera: Auber's La Muette de Portici as Seen by Wagner ; 32. Interlude: Madame Pasta ; 33. Verdi's Own Story of How Nabucco was Composed ; 34. Verdi's Operatic Style Analysed by a Contemporary ; 35. Wagner on the Evolution of his Style ; 36. Wagner's Theory of Drama ; 37. Divergent Reactions to Boris Godonov ; 38. Tchaikovsky on Eugene Onegin ; 39. Nietzsch vs. Wagner ; 40. Vedri's Otello ; 41. Interlude: Verdi and Wagner in Vienna ; 42. Verismo ; 43. Four Men at Work on La Boheme ; 44. Pelleas et Melisande ; 45. Strauss and Hofmannsthal at Work on Der Rosenkavalier ; 46. Duke Bluebeard's Castle ; 47. Busoni and the Reinstatement of Disbelief ; 48. In Defense of Kat'a Kabanova ; 49. Alban Berg on Wozzeck ; 50. Brecht on "Epic Opera" ; 51. Shostakovich and the Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Debacle ; 52. Interlude: An Italian Claque ; 53. Peter Grimes in Post-War London ; 54. Stravinsky, Auden, and The Rake's Progress ; 55. A First Reaction to Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites ; 56. Messaiaen's Introductory Note to Saint-Francois d'Assine ; 57. John Adams on Nixon in China ; 58. Index