Ottoman Empire and European Theatre Vol. IV
Ottoman Empire and European Theatre Vol. IV

Author: Michael Hüttler

Publisher: Hollitzer Wissenschaftsverlag

Published: 2016-05-23

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 3990121901

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The book series “Ottomania” researches cultural transfers between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, with the performing arts as its focus. In Ottoman Empire and European Theatre, vol. IV: Seraglios in Theatre, Music and Literature, the series continues to explore one of the most popular subjects of eighteenth-century art: the seraglio and its harem. This volume provides a deeper understanding of the seraglio's various manifestations in the artworks, music and theatre of the Austrian/ Habsburg and central European regions, including interconnections with Italy and France, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The studies examine descriptions of the seraglio by European diplomats, the seraglio's visual traces in European artworks, and depictions of the seraglio in eighteenth-century Austrian Singspiele. They also consider seraglios from the Ottoman point of view and investigate the music of the seraglio in eighteenth-century opera.

The Musical World of Marie-Antoinette
The Musical World of Marie-Antoinette

Author: Barrington James

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2021-06-30

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1476684367

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For decades, eighteenth-century Paris had been declining into a baroque backwater. Spectacles at the opera, once considered fit for a king, had become "hell for the ears," wrote playwright Carlos Goldoni. Then, in 1774, with the crowning of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, Paris became one of the world's most vibrant musical centers. Austrian composer Christophe-Willibald Gluck, protege of the queen, introduced a new kind of tragic opera--dramatic, human and closer to nature. The expressive pantomime known as ballet d'action, forerunner of the modern ballet, replaced stately court dancing. Along the boulevards, people whistled lighter tunes from the Italian opera, where the queen's favorite composer, Andre Modeste Gretry, ruled supreme. This book recounts Gluck's remaking of the grand operatic tragedy--long symbolic of absolute monarchy--and the vehement quarrels between those who embraced reform and those who preferred familiar baroque tunes or the sweeter melodies of Italy. The turmoil was an important element in the ferment that led to the French Revolution and the beheading of the queen.