The Cambridge Companion to Verdi

This 2004 Companion provides an accessible introduction to Verdi's life and music.

Scott L. Balthazar (Edited by)

9780521635356, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 November 2004

366 pages, 12 tables 49 music examples
24.4 x 17 x 1.9 cm, 0.635 kg

'…offers many hours of thoroughly delectable and mostly instructive reading.' Nineteenth-Century Music Review

This 2004 Companion provides a biographical, theatrical and social-cultural background for Verdi's music, examines in detail important general aspects of its style and method of composing, and synthesizes stylistic themes in discussions of representative works. Aspects of Verdi's milieu, style, creative process and critical reception are explored in essays by highly reputed specialists. Individual chapters address themes in Verdi's life, his role in transforming the theater business, and his relationship to Italian Romanticism and the Risorgimento. Chapters on four operas representative of the different stages of Verdi's career, Ernani, Rigoletto, Don Carlos and Otello synthesize analytical themes introduced in the more general chapters and illustrate the richness of Verdi's creativity. The Companion also includes chapters on Verdi's non-operatic songs and other music, his creative process, and scholarly writing about Verdi from the nineteenth-century to the present day.

List of music examples
List of tables
Notes on contributors
Preface
Chronology
Part I. Personal, Cultural, and Political Context: 1. Verdi's life: a thematic biography Mary Jane Phillips-Matz
2. The Italian theater of Verdi's day Alessandro Roccatagliati
3. Verdi, Italian Romanticism and the Risorgimento Mary Ann Smart
Part II. The Style of Verdi's Operas and Non-Operatic Works: 4. The forms of set pieces Scott L. Balthazar
5. New currents in the libretto Fabrizio della Seta
6. Words and music Emanuele Senici
7. French influences Andreas Giger
8. Structural coherence Steven Huebner
9. Instrumental music in Verdi's operas David Kimbell
10. Verdi's non-operatic works Roberta Montemorra Marvin
Part III. Essays on Representative Operas: 11. Ernani: the tenor in transformation Rosa Solinas
12. 'Ch'hai di nuovo, buffon?' or what's new with Rigoletto Cormac Newark
13. Verdi's Don Carlos: an overview of the opera Harold Powers
14. Desdemona's alienation and Otello's fall Scott L. Balthazar
Part IV. Creation and Critical Reception: 15. An introduction to Verdi's working methods Luke Jensen
16. Verdi criticism Gregory Harwood
List of Verdi's operas
Notes
Verdi's works
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH]