A comprehensive overview of the history of opera, organized chronologically by era, traces the evolution of the musical art form from the perspective of its social and cultural contexts and offers a detailed study of opera houses, stage and scene aspects, voice, musical techniques, performances, and popular melody as they relate to opera.
The Pan Book Of Opera Jacobs, Arthur and Sadie, Stanley
First published in 1996 to great critical and popular acclaim, the Grove Book of Operas , is a collection of synopses and descriptions of over 250 operas. Each succinct yet insightful entry is written by a leading authority on the opera and includes a full synopsis of the plot, a cast list, a note on the singers in the original production, and information on the origins of the work and its literary and social background. Contributions conclude with a brief comment on the particular work's place in operatic history. A glossary offers brief and accessible definitions of terms that may be unfamiliar to the reader. And indices of role names and of arias and ensembles allow the reader to find operas containing their favorite aria or a well-known character.The second edition brings the book up to date with several recently composed operas and a fascinating introductory essay by David Levin on opera performance in the 21st century. Recent additions to the operatic repertory included for the first time in this edition include Nicholas Maw, Sophie's Choice ; Poul Ruders, A Handmaid's Tale ; John Adams, Death of Klinghoffer ; and Mark Adamo, Little Women .Covering all operas in the current repertory along with some less-well-known early and very modern ones, this is an ideal volume for the general opera lover.
First edition. A handbook for bibliographers, librarians, students of music, and the musician and the music lover eager to know more about printing and publishing. The main text includes two articles on Printing and Publishing by D. W. Krummel and the late H. Edmund Poole. There is a section that covers computer-generated music typesetting, an extensive dictionary of both present-day and historic music printers and publishers containing more than 700 entries. Illustrated. Jacket spine faded. xiv, 615 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 8vo..
Authoritative, accessible, and comprehensive, "The Classical Music Encyclopedia" offers an unprecedented depth and range of information. Organized chronologically, from the medieval era to the 21st Century, the sections in each chapter bring to life the rich history of Western classical music. Ideal for study, for background reading, or for use as a wide-ranging reference work, "The Classical Music Encyclopedia" will entertain, excite and inform both the occasional and advanced reader.
Illustrated with music examples and halftones, this book also contains a chronology of the operas, and provides a survey of Verdi's life. of photos.
This concise and comprehensive guide is designed to meet the needs of today's opera lover. It contains synopses of eighty-three major operas by forty-one composers from Monterverdi and Purcell, through Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Debussy and Janacek, to Alban Berg, Tippett and Britten. As the authors remark in the introduction, opera is a strange, complex and fascinating art, and its increasing popularity means that more and more people are exploring its subtleties and beauty. In The Wordsworth Book of Opera, the lively accounts of the plots and the characters, together with the musical examples, make it the ideal hand-book for the newcomer to opera and to the enthusiast alike.
A child prodigy who performed throughout Europe in his early years, Mozart excelled in every medium of his time, including chamber music for strings, the piano and concerto and opera. Along with his contemporaries Haydn and Beethoven, he is one of the composers who brought the Viennese Classical style to its height. His mature music, distinguished by its melodic beauty, formal perfection and richness of harmony is rooted in both Austrian and German traditions. He is widely regarded as the most universal composer in the history of Western music. In addition to a detailed view of Mozart's life and works, this book includes comprehensive, tabular work-lists and a fully revised and updated bibliography.
