Opera

Perfect for music students and opera-goers, this book investigates what opera is, how it works and how it has developed.

Robert Cannon (Author)

9780521763028, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 February 2012

450 pages, 168 tables
24.4 x 17 x 2.5 cm, 1.02 kg

'I would certainly want to own a copy.' Opera

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.

Introduction
Part I: 1. Pre-operatic forms
2. First operatic forms: Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Keiser
3. Formalization
4. Reform - the reintegration of elements
5. Comedy and the 'real world'
6. 'Authentic' performance
Part II: 7. Romanticism and romantic opera in Germany
8. Opera in nineteenth-century Italy
9. Grand Opéra and the visual language of opera
10. The Wagnerian revolution
11. Nationalists: vernacular language and music
12. The role of the singer
Part III: 13. The turn of the century and the crisis in opera
14. First modernism: symbolist and expressionist opera
15. The dramaturgy of opera: libretto - words and structure
16. Narrative opera: realistic and non-realistic
17. Radical narratives
18. Directors and the direction of opera
Appendices: 1. Motifs from Der Ring
2. The development of singing voices
3. The development of lyric theatre alternatives to 'opera'
4. Some major operas, artistic and political events of the twentieth century
Glossary of terms
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Opera [AVGC9], Theatre studies [AN]