The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Music
The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Music

Author: Christopher R. Wilson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 1289

ISBN-13: 0190945141

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"This compendium reflects the latest international research into the many and various uses of music in relation to Shakespeare's plays and poems, the contributors' lines of enquiry extending from the Bard's own time to the present day. The coverage is global in its scope, and includes studies of Shakespeare-related music in countries as diverse as China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, and the Soviet Union, as well as the more familiar Anglophone musical and theatrical traditions of the UK and USA. The range of genres surveyed by the book's team of distinguished authors embraces music for theatre, opera, ballet, musicals, the concert hall, and film, in addition to Shakespeare's ongoing afterlives in folk music, jazz, and popular music. The authors take a range of diverse approaches: some investigate the evidence for performative practices in the Early Modern and later eras, while others offer detailed analyses of representative case studies, situating these firmly in their cultural contexts, or reflecting on the political and sociological ramifications of the music. As a whole, the volume provides a wide-ranging compendium of cutting-edge scholarship engaging with an extraordinarily rich body of music without parallel in the history of the global arts"--

On Music
On Music

Author: Benjamin Britten

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 9780198167143

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Benjamin Britten was a most reluctant public speaker. Yet his contributions were without doubt a major factor in the transformation during his lifetime of the structure of the art-music industry. This book, by bringing together all his published articles, unpublished speeches, drafts, and transcriptions of numerous radio interviews, explores the paradox of a reluctant yet influential cultural commentator, artist, and humanist. Whether talking about his own music, about the role of the artist in society, about music criticism, or wading into a debate on Soviet ideology at the height of the cold war, Britten always gave a performance which reinforced the notion of a private man who nonetheless saw the importance of public disclosure.

The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten
The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten

Author: Mervyn Cooke

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1999-06-28

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780521574761

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The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten is a comprehensive guide to the composer's work, aimed both at the non-specialist and music student. It sheds light on both the composer's stylistic and personal development, offering new interpretations of his operatic works and discussing his characteristic working methods. Topics treated here in detail for the first time include Britten's work in the cinema in the 1930s, his lifelong pacifism and his strong interest in the music of the Far East; other chapters include reassessments of his relationship with W. H. Auden and his attitude towards childhood, comprehensive analyses of major works and a concise history of the Aldeburgh Festival. A distinguished team of contributors include some who worked with the composer during his lifetime, as well as leading representatives of the younger generation of Britten scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Midsummer Nights: Tales from the Opera:
Midsummer Nights: Tales from the Opera:

Author: Jeanette Winterson

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2019-04-18

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1529404061

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With Kate Atkinson, Sebastian Barry, Anne Enright, Alexander McCall Smith, Andrew O'Hagan, Kate Mosse, Andrew Motion, Colm Tóibín, Joanna Trollope, Ali Smith, Jeanette Winterson & more In this stunning collection, the best and brightest writers working today reimagine familiar stories from the greatest operas. Don Giovanni's ghost haunts a young boy, Fidelio meets Porgy and Bess and two hapless men stage a Mozartian love test. Long-lost loves enter the dating game and undying witches finally get grey hairs. Funny, macabre or irreverent, these stories are charming for any opera lover and a beguiling collection in their own right.

Histories of Violence
Histories of Violence

Author: Brad Evans

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-01-15

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1783602406

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While there is a tacit appreciation that freedom from violence will lead to more prosperous relations among peoples, violence continues to be deployed for various political and social ends. Yet the problem of violence still defies neat description, subject to many competing interpretations. Histories of Violence offers an accessible yet compelling examination of the problem of violence as it appears in the corpus of canonical figures – from Hannah Arendt to Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault to Slavoj Žižek – who continue to influence and inform contemporary political, philosophical, sociological, cultural, and anthropological study. Written by a team of internationally renowned experts, this is an essential interrogation of post-war critical thought as it relates to violence.

A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream

Author: Judith M. Kennedy

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1999-10-01

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 1847141757

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This study traces the response to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" from Shakespeare's day to the present, including critics from Britain, Europe and America.

Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Author: William H. L. Godsalve

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13:

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The opinions of many critics are cited: they usually shed favorable light on Britten's "remaking." The reader is free and encouraged to indulge in the pleasure of arriving at an independent judgment.

Shakespeare Survey: Volume 65, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare Survey: Volume 65, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Author: Peter Holland

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-11-08

Total Pages: 1088

ISBN-13: 1316139530

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Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948, the Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies and of the year's major British performances. The theme for Volume 65 is 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. The complete set of Survey volumes is also available online at http://www.cambridge.org/online/shakespearesurvey. This fully searchable resource enables users to browse by author, essay and volume, search by play, theme and topic and save and bookmark their results.

Britten's Children
Britten's Children

Author: John Bridcut

Publisher:

Published: 2007-06

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9780571228409

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Britten's Children confronts the edgy subject of the composer's obsessional yet strangely innocent relationships with adolescent boys. One of the hallmarks of Benjamin Britten's music is his use of boys' voices, and John Bridcut uses this to create a fresh prism through which to view the composer's life. Interweaving discussion of the music he wrote for and about children with interviews with the boys whom Britten befriended, Bridcut explores the influence of these unique friendships - notably with the late David Hemmings - and how they helped Britten maintain links with his own happy childhood. In a remarkable part of the book Bridcut tells for the first time the full story of Britten's love affair in the 1930s with the 18-year-old German Wulff Scherchen, son of the conductor Hermann Scherchen. As Paul Hoggart of The Times commented, 'this type of love belonged to an emotional landscape that has vanished for ever, and we are the poorer for it'. Since making the film, the author has extended his research to include friendships Britten had with children which have not previously been documented.The documentary Britten's Children won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 2005 Award for Creative Communication: 'this serious and beautiful film explored one aspect of a composer's life in great depth. Avoiding the temptation of sensationalism, Britten's Children was imaginatively researched and both touching and revelatory'.

Midsummer Night's Dream
Midsummer Night's Dream

Author: Benjamin Britten

Publisher: Alma Books

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 0714544752

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A Midsummer Night's Dream was Benjamin Britten's seventh major opera and had its premiere at Aldeburgh in 1960. Britten and his partner Peter Pears prepared a condensed version of Shakespeare's much-loved comedy for the libretto, using (with the exception of a single line) only the original text.In this newly commissioned guide, Andrew Plant explores the genesis of the opera's composition, including passages of recently published material from Britten's own correspondence. Philip Reed examines the musical language of the opera and has prepared a detailed thematic guide, while David Nice outlines many of the different approaches to the work in productions that have taken place over the last forty years. An essay by Philip Brett discusses how the opera reflects the central issues in Britten's work. Finally, a unique article is included which Britten himself wrote for the Observer immediately preceding the work's premiere. The present edition also contains twenty-five black-and-white and colour photographs, the full libretto, a discography, DVD guide, bibliography and website guide. It will prove an invaluable companion to opera-goers wanting to increase their understanding and enjoyment of this magical work.Contents:Night's Caressing Grip: The Evolution of the Dream, Andrew PlantA Midsummer Night's Dream: The Music, Philip ReedReinventing the Dream: A Midsummer Night's Dream on Stage, David NiceBritten's Dream: An Introduction, Philip BrettA New Britten Opera, Benjamin BrittenA Midsummer Night's Dream: Libretto adapted from William Shakespeare by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears