Synopses & Reviews
Review
"[A] valuable addition to the 'Cambridge Companions to Music' series.... Highly recommended." Choice
Synopsis
A team of scholars and writers examines important Romantic operas and traces the origins and development of a style created during an increasingly technical age. The volume analyzes grand operas by Rossini, Auber, Meyerbeer and Hal vy and discusses grand opera in Russia and Germany, and the Czechoslovakian territories, Italy, Britain and the Americas. The volume includes an essay by the renowned opera director David Pountney.
Synopsis
A fascinating and accessible exploration of the world of grand opera, examining important Romantic operas and the grand operas of Rossini, Auber, Meyerbeer and Halévy, among others. The volume also includes an essay by the renowned opera director David Pountney.
About the Author
David Charlton is Professor of Music History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Grétry and the Growth of Opéra-Comique (Cambridge, 1986), E. T. A. Hoffman's Musical Writings: Kreisleriana; The Poet and the Composer; Music Criticism (Cambridge, 1989) and most recently, French Opera 1730-1830 (2000).
Table of Contents
1. Introduction David Charlton; Part I. The Resourcing of Grand Opera: 2. The 'machine' and the State HervéLacombe; 3. Fictions and librettos Nicholas White; 4. The spectacle of the past in grand opera Simon Williams; 5. The chorus James Parakilas; 6. Dance and dancers Marian Smith; 7. Roles, reputations, shadows: singers at the Opéra, 1828-49 Mary Ann Smart; Part II. Revaluation and the Twenty-first Century: 8. Directing grand opera: Rienzi and Guillaume Tell at the Vienna State Opera David Pountney; Part III. Grand Operas for Paris: 9. La Muette and her context Sarah Hibberd; 10. Scribe and Auber: constructing grand opera Herbert Schneider; 11. Meyerbeer: Robert le Diable and Les Huguenots Matthias Brzoska; 12. Meyerbeer: Le Prophète and L'Africaine John H. Roberts; 13. The grand operas of Fromental Halévy Diana R. Hallman; 14. From Rossini to Verdi M. Elizabeth C. Bartlett; 15. After 1850 at the Paris Opéra: institution and repertory Steven Huebner; Part IV. Transformations of Grand Opera: 16. Richard Wagner and the legacy of French grand opera Thomas Grey; 17. Grand opera in Russia: fragments Marina Frolova-Walker; 18. Grand opera among the Czechs Jan Smaczny; 19. Italian opera Fiamma Nicolodi; 20. Grand opera in Britain and the Americas Sarah Hibberd.