Opera

by Robert Cannon

• ISBN13: 9780521763028
• ISBN10: 0521763029
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What is opera and how does it work? How has this dramatic form developed and what is its relevance in the modern world? Perfect for music students and opera-goers, this introductory guide addresses these questions and many more, exploring opera as a complete theatrical experience. Organised chronologically and avoiding technical musical terminology, the book clearly demonstrates how opera reflected and reacted to changes in the world around it. A special feature of the volume is the inclusion of illustrative tables throughout. These provide detailed, easy to follow analysis of arias, scenes and acts; visual guides to historical movements; and chronologies relating to genres and individual composers' works. Overall, the book fosters an understanding of opera as a living form as it encounters and uses material from an ever expanding repertoire in time, place and culture.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pre-operatic forms

First operatic forms: Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Keiser

Formalization

Reform - the reintegration of elements

Comedy and the 'real world'

'Authentic' performance

Romanticism and romantic opera in Germany

Opera in nineteenth-century Italy

Grand Opéra and the visual language of opera

The Wagnerian revolution

Nationalists: vernacular language and music

The role of the singer

The turn of the century and the crisis in opera

First modernism: symbolist and expressionist opera

The dramaturgy of opera: libretto - words and structure

Narrative opera: realistic and non-realistic

Radical narratives

Directors and the direction of opera

Appendices

Motifs from Der Ring

The development of singing voices

The development of lyric theatre alternatives to 'opera'

Some major operas, artistic and political events of the twentieth century

Glossary of terms

Bibliography

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