The Operatic State: Cultural Policy and the Opera House

by Bereson,Ruth

• ISBN13: 9780415278515
• ISBN10: 0415278511
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Operatic Stateexamines the cultural, financial, and political investments that have gone into the maintenance of opera and opera houses across Italy, France, Russia, the United States, Australia and the UK, and which have led to opera's nearly immutable form throughout wars, revolutions, and vast social changes. Bereson argues that by legitimizing the power of the state through universally recognized ceremonial ritual, opera enjoys a privileged status across three continents, often to the detriment of popular and indigenous art forms.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introducing the Power Brokers	1	(15)
Princely Pleasures: Princes and Power - The Birthplace of European Opera	16	(18)
Of Kings and Barricades: From the Heart of Versailles to the Place de la Bastiile	34	(29)
The Disunited Kingdom: London's Operatic Battles	63	(35)
Along the Danube and the Rhine: Playthings of the Austro-Hungarian and Prussian Empires	98	(21)
The Jewel in the Grown - Stronger and More Permanent than Ideologies: Why Opera as Retained by the Bolsheviks	119	(12)
Magnificence of the Met - The Commercial Fable: High Society, Corporations and State	131	(17)
The Chip in the Harbour	148	(22)
Other Operas - Other Worlds	170	(8)
Back to the Future?	178	(8)
Notes	186	(16)
Bibliography	202	(13)
Index	215