On Opera
1st Edition
Published on 1. October 2008
176 pages
978-0-300-14228-0 (ISBN)
Description
Bernard Williams, who died in 2003, was one of the most influential moral philosophers of his generation. A lifelong opera lover, his articles and essays, talks for the BBC, contributions to the Grove Dictionary of Opera, and program notes for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the English National Opera, generated a devoted following.This elegant volume brings together these widely scattered and largely unobtainable pieces, including two that have not been previously published. It covers an engaging range of topics from Mozart to Wagner, including sparkling essays on specific operas by those composers as well as Verdi, Puccini, Strauss, Debussy, Janacek, and Tippett.Reflecting Williamss brilliance, passion, and clarity of mind, these essays engage with, and illustrate, the enduring appeal of opera as an art form.
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Bernard Williams | Michael Tanner
On Opera
Book
10/2006
Yale University Press
€24.75
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Persons
Bernard Williams was Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy, Cambridge University, Monroe Deutsch Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley, and White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, Oxford University. He was a member of the board of the English National Opera in London and author of many articles on music.
Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Editorial Preface by Patricia Williams
- Introduction by Michael Tanner
- 1 The Nature of Opera: Entry for The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
- 2 Mozart's Comedies and the Sense of an Ending
- 3 Mozart's Figaro
- 4 Don Giovanni as an Idea
- 5 Passion and Cynicism
- 6 Rather Red than Black
- 7 Tristan and Time
- 8 The Elusiveness of Pessimism
- 9 Wagner and the Transcendence of Politics
- 10 L'Envers des destinées
- 11 Manifest Artifice
- 12 Comments on Opera and Ideas: From Mozart to Strauss by Paul Robinson
- 13 The Marriage and the Flute
- 14 ? Janácek's Modernism: Doing Less with More in Music and Philosophy
- 15 Authenticity and Re-creation: Musicology, Performance and Production
- 16 Naïve and Sentimental Opera Lovers
- Acknowledgments
- Index of Names and Works
