Singers of Italian Opera
The History of a Profession

John Rosselli introduces all those singers, members of the chorus as well as stars, who have sung Italian opera from 1600 to the twentieth century.

John Rosselli (Author)

9780521426978, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 March 1995

292 pages, 26 b/w illus. 5 tables
23.2 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.476 kg

'… a storehouse of information, skilfully organised, attractively presented.' BBC Music Magazine

Adelina Patti was the most highly regarded singer in history. She earned nearly $5,000 a night and had her own railway carriage. Yet a minor comic singer would perform for the cost of his food and a pair of shoes to wear on stage. John Rosselli's wide-ranging study introduces all those singers, members of the chorus as well as stars, who have sung Italian opera from 1600 to the twentieth century. Singers are shown slowly emancipating themselves from dependence on great patrons and entering the dangerous freedom of the market. Rosselli also examines the sexist prejudices against the castrati of the eighteenth century and against women singers. Securely rooted in painstaking scholarship and sprinkled with amusing anecdote, this is a book to fascinate and inform opera fans at all levels.

List of illustrations
Preface
List of abbreviations
Introduction: a living tradition
1. Musicians attending
2. Castrati
3. Women
4. The coming of a market
5. Training
6. Pay
7. Careers
8. The age of the tenor
9. The coming of mass society
Notes
Note on further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Opera [AVGC9]