The Cambridge Companion to Verdi

by Edited by Scott L. Balthazar

• ISBN13: 9780521632287
• ISBN10: 0521632285
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This Companion provides a biographical, theatrical, and social-cultural background for Verdi’s music, examines in detail important general aspects of its style and method of composing, and synthesizes stylistic themes in discussions of representative works. Aspects of Verdi’s milieu, style, creative process, and critical reception are explored in essays by highly reputed specialists. Individual chapters address themes in Verdi’s life, his role in transforming the theater business, and his relationship to Italian Romanticism and the Risorgimento. Chapters on four operas representative of the different stages of Verdi’s career, Ernani, Rigoletto, Don Carlos, and Otello synthesize analytical themes introduced in the more general chapters and illustrate the richness of Verdi’s creativity. The Companion also includes chapters on Verdi’s non-operatic songs and other music, his creative process, and scholarly writing about Verdi from the nineteenth-century to the present day.

Table of Contents

List of music examples

List of tables

Notes on contributors

Preface

Chronology

Part I. Personal, Cultural, and Political Context: 1. Verdi's life: a thematic biography Mary Jane Phillips-Matz

2. The Italian theater of Verdi's day Alessandro Roccatagliati

3. Verdi, Italian Romanticism and the Risorgimento Mary Ann Smart

Part II. The Style of Verdi's Operas and Non-Operatic Works: 4. The forms of set pieces Scott L. Balthazar

5. New currents in the libretto Fabrizio della Seta

6. Words and music Emanuele Senici

7. French influences Andreas Giger

8. Structural coherence Steven Huebner

9. Instrumental music in Verdi's operas David Kimbell

10. Verdi's non-operatic works Roberta Montemorra Marvin

Part III. Essays on Representative Operas: 11. Ernani: the tenor in transformation Rosa Solinas

12. 'Ch'hai di nuovo, buffon?' or what's new with Rigoletto Cormac Newark

13. Verdi's Don Carlos: an overview of the opera Harold Powers

14. Desdemona's alienation and Otello's fall Scott L. Balthazar

Part IV. Creation and Critical Reception: 15. An introduction to Verdi's working methods Luke Jensen

16. Verdi criticism Gregory Harwood

List of Verdi's operas

Notes

Verdi's Works

Bibliography

Index.