Singers of Italian Opera: The History of a Profession

ISBN-13: 9780521426978 / Angielski / Miękka / 1995 / 292 str.

John Rosselli

Opis

Adelina Patti was the most highly regarded singer in the 19th century. She earned nearly $5000 a night and had her own railway carriage; yet during the same period 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. Securely rooted in painstaking scholarship and sprinkled with amusing anecdotes, this is a book to fascinate and inform opera fans at all levels.

Recenzje

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

Spis treści

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.