Foreign Opera at the London Playhouses
From Mozart to Bellini

London operatic adaptations have been maligned, but this comprehensive study demonstrates their importance to theatre, opera and canon formation.

Christina Fuhrmann (Author)

9781107022218, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 September 2015

272 pages, 3 b/w illus. 6 tables 40 music examples
25.3 x 18.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.72 kg

In the early nineteenth century over forty operas by foreign composers, including Mozart, Rossini, Weber and Bellini, were adapted for London playhouses, often appearing in drastically altered form. Such changes have been denigrated as 'mutilations'. The operas were translated into English, fitted with spoken dialogue, divested of much of their music, augmented with interpolations and frequently set to altered libretti. By the end of the period, the radical changes of earlier adaptations gave way to more faithful versions. In the first comprehensive study of these adaptations, Christina Fuhrmann shows how integral they are to our understanding of early nineteenth-century opera and the transformation of London's theatrical and musical life. This book reveals how these operas accelerated repertoire shifts in the London theatrical world, fostered significant changes in musical taste, revealed the ambiguities and inadequacies of copyright law and sparked intense debate about fidelity to the original work.

Introduction
1. A tale of two Boieldieus
2. The pippin and the pineapple: Rossini and Mozart
3. 'The flood-gates of foreign music': Der Freischütz
4. The search for Weber's successor
5. Mozart and Rossini revisited
6. Grand opera: competition and copyright
7. Of foreigners and fidelity
Appendix 1. Operas adapted for the London playhouses, 1814–33
Appendix 2. Reviews of adaptations.

Subject Areas: History [HB], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literature & literary studies [D], Opera [AVGC9], Romantic music [c 1830 to c 1900 AVGC5], Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4], Theory of music & musicology [AVA], Music [AV], Film, TV & radio [AP], Theatre studies [AN]