A noted music critic weaves a brilliantly engaging narrative which puts Mozart's operas in the context of his life, showing how they illuminate his creativity as a whole.
Up-to-date, authoritative, and accessible, this is the best Mozart opera guide available This wise and friendly guide to Mozart's operas encompasses the full range of his most popular works--Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così, Magic Flute, Seraglio, Clemenza di Tito--as well as lesser known works like Mitridate and Il re Pastore. Music historian Mary Hunter provides a lively introduction to each opera for any listener who has enjoyed a performance, either on the stage or in a video recording, and who wishes to understand the opera more fully. The Companion includes a synopsis and commentary on each work, as well as background information on the three main genres in which Mozart wrote: opera seria, opera buffa, and Singspiel. An essay on the "anatomy" of a Mozart opera points out the musical conventions with which the composer worked and suggests nontechnical ways to think about his musical choices. The book also places modern productions of the operas in historical context and explores how modern directors, producers, and conductors present Mozart's works today. Filled with factual information and interesting issues to ponder while watching a performance, this guide will appeal to newcomers and seasoned opera aficionados alike.
Handy practical guide to three of Mozart's most popular operas. Excellent line-for-line English translations face the Italian texts. Also introductions, plot synopses, and lists of characters for each opera.
At once the most light-hearted and disturbing of Mozart and Da Ponte's Italian comic works, the opera has provoked widely differing reactions from listeners for more than two centuries. This study provides a detailed account of the libretto's complex origins in myth and Italian literary classics.
Titles in the Listener’s Companion Series provide readers with a deeper understanding of key musical genres and the work of major artists and composers. Aimed at nonspecialists, each volume clearly explains how to listen to works from particular artists, composers, and genres. Examining both the context in which the music appeared and its form, authors provide the environments in which key musical works were written and performed—from a 1950s bebop concert at the Village Vanguard to a performance of Handel’s Messiah in eighteenth-century Dublin. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756–1791) remains as popular today as ever. His recordings fill iTunes playlists, and annual Mozart festivals are performed worldwide. His eminence as a musician has supported overseas guided tours, served as the subject of a cartoon series (Little Amadeus: twenty-nine episodes from 2006 to 2008), inspired movies and documentaries, and launched a French rock opera. In Experiencing Mozart: A Listener’s Companion, music historian David Schroeder illustrates how the issues Mozart cared about so deeply remain important to modern listeners. His views on politics, women, authority, and religion are provided, along with compelling analysis of selected great symphonies and sonatas, moving concertos and innovative keyboard works, and groundbreaking operas. Schroeder merges his vast knowledge of the great artist’s personal and professional life, late eighteenth-century European culture and society, and remarkable musicianship to guide listeners in the art of listening to Mozart. This work is an ideal introduction to readers and listeners at any level.
Still chiefly known as the extravagant composer of the Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz was an artist caught in the crossfire between the academic classicism of the French musical establishment and the romantic modernism of the Parisian musical scene. He was a thinker in an age that invented both the religion of art and the notion of the 'genius' who preached and practised it. This Companion contains essays by eminent scholars on Berlioz's place in nineteenth-century French cultural life, on his principal compositions (symphonies, overtures, operas, sacred works, songs), on his major writings (a delightful volume of memoires, a number of short stories, large quantities of music criticism, an orchestration treatise), on his direct and indirect encounters with other famous musicians (Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner), and on his legacy in France. The volume is framed by a detailed chronology of his life and a usefully annotated bibliography.
A scholarly exploration of Elmore Leonard—provides original essays and fresh insights on the author’s works and influence Labelled as "the closest thing America has to a national novelist," Elmore Leonard's clean and direct writing, engaging bad guys, and deadpan humor resonate with readers around the nation and throughout the world. Popular films based on his books continue to introduce new audiences to Leonard's unique way of engaging with complex themes of American culture and pop-culture history. Yet surprisingly, academic treatments of his writing are almost nonexistent. Critical Essays on Elmore Leonard is an original anthology that covers the topics, themes, literary and narrative style, and enduring influences of one of the finest crime writers in the history of the genre. This unique collection of essays explores the ways in which Leonard’s work reflects America's dynamic, ever-changing culture. Divided into two parts, the book first examines major themes and topics in Leonard's works, followed by detailed case studies of five individual works including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. Essays discuss topics such as Leonard's skill at conveying sense of place, his use of dress and appearance in his crime fiction, the influence of romantic comedies and westerns on his writing, and the concepts of moral luck, determinism, and existentialism found in his novels. Unique and thoroughly original, this book: Covers Leonard's entire career, including his early Western novels and his work in visual media Illustrates Leonard's genius at handling free indirect discourse Discusses the author's influence, legacy, and contemporary relevance in various contexts Explores Leonard's success at making himself "invisible" in his own writing Includes an insightful introduction from the book's editor Critical Essays on Elmore Leonard is an ideal resource for academics and students in the field of genre studies, especially crime fiction, and general readers with interest in the subject.
This book explores how the Enlightenment aesthetics of theater as a moral institution influenced cultural politics and operatic developments in Vienna between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Moralistic viewpoints were particularly important in eighteenth-century debates about German national theater. In Vienna, the idea that vernacular theater should cultivate the moral sensibilities of its German-speaking audiences became prominent during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, when advocates of German plays and operas attempted to deflect the imperial government from supporting exclusively French and Italian theatrical performances. Morality continued to be a dominant aspect of Viennese operatic culture in the following decades, as critics, state officials, librettists, and composers (including Gluck, Mozart, and Beethoven) attempted to establish and define German national opera. Viennese concepts of operatic didacticism and national identity in theater further transformed in response to the crisis of Emperor Joseph II’s reform movement, the revolutionary ideas spreading from France, and the war efforts in facing Napoleonic aggression. The imperial government promoted good morals in theatrical performances through the institution of theater censorship, and German-opera authors cultivated intensely didactic works (such as Die Zauberflöte and Fidelio) that eventually became the cornerstones for later developments of German culture.