The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera
The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera
Pierpaolo Polzonetti, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Reflecting a wide variety of approaches to eighteenth-century opera, this Companion brings together leading international experts in the field to provide a valuable reference source. Viewing opera as a complex and fascinating form of art and social ritual, rather than reducing it simply to music and text analysis, individual essays investigate aspects such as audiences, architecture of the theaters, marketing, acting style, and the politics and strategy of representing class and gender. Overall, the volume provides a synthesis of well established knowledge, reflects recent research on eighteenth-century opera, and stimulates further research. The reader is encouraged to view opera as a cultural phenomenon that can reveal aspects of our culture, both past and present. Eighteenth-century opera is experiencing continuing critical and popular success through innovative and provoking productions world-wide, and this Companion will appeal to opera goers as well as to students and teachers of this key topic.
- Demonstrates why eighteenth-century opera is still relevant to us today, covering the reasons for its ongoing popular and critical success
- Perfect for undergraduate and graduate courses on eighteenth-century opera, a key topic in music studies
- The contributors represent a wide range of countries, reflecting the international nature of eighteenth-century opera
Reviews & endorsements
"The divided authorship provides a rich fund of expertise... This Companion has succeeded in its aim to address a wide range of skills and interests. ..The style is always accessible... it is a pleasure to handle. It cannot fail to leave its readers enlightened." --Musical Times
Product details
July 2009Hardback
9780521873581
344 pages
254 × 180 × 21 mm
0.83kg
2 b/w illus. 15 tables 41 music examples
Available
Table of Contents
- Chronology of relevant events in eighteenth-century opera
- Part I. The Making of Opera:
- 1. Opera as process Pierpaolo Polzonetti
- 2. Aria as drama James Webster
- 3. Ensembles and finales Caryl Clark
- 4. Metastasio: the dramaturgy of eighteenth-century heroic opera Francesco Cotticelli and Paologiovanni Maione
- 5. Roles and acting Gianni Cicali
- 6. Ballet Rebecca Harris-Warrick
- 7. Orchestra and voice in eighteenth-century Italian opera John Spitzer
- 8. To look again (at Don Giovanni) Alessandra Campana
- Part II. National Styles and Genres:
- 9. Genre and form in French opera David Charlton
- 10. Genre and form in German opera Estelle Joubert
- 11. Opera in eighteenth-century England: English opera, masques, ballad operas Michael Burden
- 12. Opera in Naples Anthony R. DelDonna
- 13. Portugal and Brazil Manuel Carlos de Brito
- 14. Opera, genre, and context in Spain and its American colonies Louise Stein and José Máximo Leza.
