E' la storia di due amanti, desiderosi di stare insieme. Poiché non riescono nel medioevo a coronare il loro sogno d'amore, le loro anime si inseguiranno nel tempo, fino a ritrovarsi. Una storia d'amore, ricca di intrighi, sviluppata ai tempi dei Pitti in Scozia, alla fine del 400. Passando per la Francia pre rivoluzionaria del 1770, fino a giungere ai nostri giorni, in Italia all'interno dello spettacolare scenario che offre la città di Verona. Una leggenda, continui colpi di scena e misteriosi avvenimenti segneranno questa incredibile avventura.
A sampling of the world's greatest Baroque and Classical arias. In addition to offering fascinating background information about the arias and their composers, the editor has corrected a multitude of errors which have accumulated over time, and has replaced Romantic-era misinterpretations with accompaniments that are faithful to historical styles. Includes word-by-word transcriptions into the International Phonetic Alphabet.
First published in 1991. At once poet, dramatist, adaptor and translator, the operatic librettist in turn expresses and mocks social convention. Deirdre O'Grady's study of the Italian operatic librettist identifies opera as a mirror of literary climates, popular taste and political aspirations. The Last Troubadours traces the history of the Italian libretto from its courtly origin in the 16th century, through the crisis of the aristocracy and the 19th-century struggle for national unity, to the birth of social realism. Fundamental elements of Italian opera - heroic valour, cunning servants, revolutionary ardour and romantic tenderness - are considered in their historical and cultural context. Also discussed are famous lyrical and musical collaborations - of Da Ponte and Mozart, Solera and Verdi, Romani and Bellini, and Boito and Verdi.
A glittering cultural tour of Europe's major capitals during a period of intense musical change. This volume continues the study of the eighteenth century begun in Haydn, Mozart, and the Viennese School 1740–1780 (1995) by focusing on the capital cities other than Vienna that were most important in the creation and diffusion of new music. It tells of events in Naples, where Vinci and Pergolesi went beyond their pre-1720 models to cultivate opera in a simpler, more direct manner, soon after christened the galant style. No less central was Venice, where Vivaldi perfected the concerto, on which were patterned the early symphonies and the newer kind of sonata. Dresden profited first from all these achievements and became, under Hasse's direction, the foremost center of Italian opera in Germany. Mannheim with its great orchestra did much to shape the modern symphony. A few years later, Paris became paramount, especially for its Opéra-Comique; during the 1770s the Opéra provided Gluck with a stage on which to cap his long international career. The book concludes with a description of Christian Bach in London, Paisiello in Saint Petersburg, and Boccherini in Madrid. This long-awaited book offers a view of eighteenth-century music that is broad and innovative while remaining sensitive to the values of those times and places. One comes away from it with an understanding of the European context behind the triumphs of Haydn and Mozart. Lavishly illustrated with music examples and reproductions, both in black-and-white and color, this master study will be of inestimable importance to scholars, cultural historians, performers, and all music lovers.
