Understanding Italian Opera

ISBN-13: 9780190247942 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 288 str.

Tim Carter

Opis

Opera is often regarded as the pinnacle of high art. A "Western" genre with global reach, it is where music and drama come together in unique ways, supported by stellar singers and spectacular scenic effects. Yet it is also patently absurd -- why should anyone break into song on the dramatic stage? -- and shrouded in mystique. In this engaging and entertaining guide, renowned music scholar Tim Carter unravels its many layers to offer a thorough introduction to Italian opera from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries.
Eschewing the technical musical detail that all too often dominates writing on opera, Carter begins instead where the composers themselves did: with the text. Walking readers through the relationship between music and poetry that lies at the heart of any opera, Carter then offers explorations of five of the most enduring and emblematic Italian operas: Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea; Handel's Julius Caesar in Egypt; Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro; Verdi's Rigoletto; and Puccini's La Boheme. Shedding light on the creative collusions and collisions involved in bringing opera to the stage, the various, and varying, demands of the text and music, and the nature of its musical drama, Carter also shows how Italian opera has developed over the course of music history. Complete with synopses, cast lists, and suggested further reading for each work discussed, Understanding Italian Opera is a must-read for anyone with an interest in and love for this glorious art.
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Recenzje

[Carter's] book provides a splendid corrective that makes it recommended reading for anyone seeking a more complete 'understanding' of one of the most successful genres in Western culture.

O autorze

Tim Carter is David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has published widely on music in late Renaissance and early Baroque Italy, Mozart's operas, and American musical theater in the 1930s and '40s. Previously on faculty at Royal Holloway, University of London, he frequently gives pre-performance lectures, and conducts adult-education workshops on opera in both the US and the UK.