The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies

The first comprehensive attempt to map the current field of opera studies by leading scholars in the discipline.

Nicholas Till (Edited by)

9780521671699, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 October 2012

364 pages
24.5 x 17.4 x 1.6 cm, 0.72 kg

'This is another useful addition to the Cambridge Companions to Music series, this time covering an area of music which has received less scholarly attention than others until the second half of the twentieth century … This is a scholarly book for the undergraduate or postgraduate student … although some opera fans of a more academic bent might find it of interest.' Stella Thebridge, Reference Reviews

With its powerful combination of music and theatre, opera is one of the most complex and yet immediate of all art forms. Once opera was studied only as 'a stepchild of musicology', but in the past two decades opera studies have experienced an explosion of energy with the introduction of new approaches drawn from disciplines such as social anthropology and performance studies to media theory, genre theory, gender studies and reception history. Written by leading scholars in opera studies today, this Companion offers a wide-ranging guide to a rapidly expanding field of study and new ways of thinking about a rich and intriguing art form, placing opera back at the centre of our understanding of Western culture over the past 400 years. This book gives lovers of opera as well as those studying the subject a comprehensive approach to the many facets of opera in the past and today.

Introduction: opera studies today Nicholas Till
Part I. Institutions: 1. Opera, the state and society Thomas Ertman
2. The business of opera Nicholas Payne
3. The operatic event: opera houses and opera audiences Nicholas Till
Part II. Constituents: 4. 'Too much music': the media of opera Christopher Morris
5. Voices and singers Susan Rutherford
6. Opera and modes of theatrical production Simon Williams
7. Opera and the technologies of theatrical production Nicholas Ridout
Part III. Forms: 8. The dramaturgy of opera Laurel E. Zeiss
9. Genre and poetics Alessandra Campana
10. The operatic work: texts, performances, receptions and repertories Nicholas Till
Part IV. Issues: 11. Opera and gender studies Heather Hadlock
12. Opera and national identity Suzanne Aspden
13. 'An exotic and irrational entertainment': opera and our others, opera as other Nicholas Till.

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