A Short History of Opera

by Grout, Donald Jay

• ISBN13: 9780231119580
• ISBN10: 0231119585
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

When first published in 1947, A Short History of Operaimmediately achieved international status as a classic in the field. Now, more than five decades later, this thoroughly revised and expanded fourth edition informs and entertains opera lovers just as its predecessors have.The fourth edition incorporates new scholarship that traces the most important developments in the evolution of musical drama. After surveying anticipations of the operatic form in the lyric theater of the Greeks, medieval dramatic music, and other forerunners, the book reveals the genre's beginnings in the seventeenth century and follows its progress to the present day.A Short History of Operaexamines not only the standard performance repertoire, but also works considered important for the genre's development. Its expanded scope investigates opera from Eastern European countries and Finland. The section on twentieth-century opera has been reorganized around national operatic traditions including a chapter devoted solely to opera in the United States, which incorporates material on the American musical and ties between classical opera and popular musical theater. A separate section on Chinese opera is also included.With an extensive multilanguage bibliography, more than one hundred musical examples, and stage illustrations, this authoritative one-volume survey will be invaluable to students and serious opera buffs. New fans will also find it highly accessible and informative. Extremely thorough in its coverage, A Short History of Operais now more than ever the book to turn to for anyone who wants to know about the history of this art form.

Author Biography

Hermine Weigel Williams is Scholar-in-Residence at Hamilton College.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface to the Fourth Edition	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
PART 1 Music and Drama to the End of the Sixteenth Century
1 The Lyric Theater of the Greeks	9	(4)
2 Medieval Dramatic Music	13	(8)
3 The Immediate Forerunners of Opera	21	(20)
PART 2 The Seventeenth Century
4 The Beginnings: Opera in Florence and Mantea	41	(19)
5 Other Early Seventeenth-Century Italian Court Operas, Including the First Comic Operas in Florence and Rome	60	(23)
6 Italian Opera in the Later Seventeenth Century in Italy	83	(24)
7 Seventeenth-Century Italian Opera in German-Speaking Lands	107	(14)
8 Early German Opera	121	(11)
9 Opera in France from Lully to Charpentier	132	(15)
10 Opera in England	147	(18)
PART 3 The Eighteenth Century
11 Masters of the Early Eighteenth Century	165	(38)
12 Opera Seria: General Characteristics	203	(22)
13 Opera Seria: The Composers	225	(28)
14 The Operas of Gluck	253	(19)
15 The Comic Opera of the Eighteenth Century	272	(33)
16 The Operas of Mozart and His Viennese Contemporaries	305	(30)
PART 4 The Nineteenth Century
17 The Turn of the Century	335	(18)
18 Grand Opera	353	(16)
19 Opéra Comique, Operetta, and Lyric Opera	369	(14)
20 Italian Opera of the Primo Ottocento: Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Their Contemporaries	383	(34)
21 The Romantic Opera in Germany	417	(19)
22 The Operas of Wagner	436	(37)
23 The Later Nineteenth Century: France, Italy, Germany, and Austria	473	(34)
PART 5 Other National Traditions of Opera from the Seventeenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries
24 National Traditions of Opera	507	(70)
PART 6 The Twentieth Century
25 Introduction Opera in France and Italy	577	(34)
26 Opera in the German-Speaking Countries	611	(51)
27 National Opera in Russia and Neighboring Countries; Central and Eastern Europe; Greece and Turkey; the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland; Spain, Portugal, and Latin America	662	(46)
28 Opera in the British Isles, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand	708	(21)
29 Opera in the United States	729	(58)
Appendix: Chinese Opera (Xiqu)	787	(8)
List of Abbreviations	795	(2)
Bibliography	797	(100)
Sources and Translations of Musical Examples	897	(14)
Index	911