The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera

The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera

Author: Roger Parker

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 618

ISBN-13: 9780192854452

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A historical survey of opera, from its beginnings in Florence 400 years ago, up to opera in the 1990s.


A History of Opera

A History of Opera

Author: Carolyn Abbate

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2015-09-08

Total Pages: 648

ISBN-13: 0393089533

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“The best single volume ever written on the subject, such is its range, authority, and readability.”—Times Literary Supplement Why has opera transfixed and fascinated audiences for centuries? Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker answer this question in their “effervescent, witty” (Die Welt, Germany) retelling of the history of opera, examining its development, the musical and dramatic means by which it communicates, and its role in society. Now with an expanded examination of opera as an institution in the twenty-first century, this “lucid and sweeping” (Boston Globe) narrative explores the tensions that have sustained opera over four hundred years: between words and music, character and singer, inattention and absorption. Abbate and Parker argue that, though the genre’s most popular and enduring works were almost all written in a distant European past, opera continues to change the viewer— physically, emotionally, intellectually—with its enduring power.


The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre

The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre

Author: John Russell Brown

Publisher: Oxford Illustrated History

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 598

ISBN-13: 9780192854421

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A scholarly look at 4,500 years of theater, beginning with its Greek origins and concluding with a study of theater since 1970.


The Oxford Handbook of Opera

The Oxford Handbook of Opera

Author: Helen M. Greenwald

Publisher: Oxford Handbooks

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 1217

ISBN-13: 0195335538

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Fifty of the world's most respected scholars cast opera as a fluid entity that continuously reinvents itself in a reflection of its patrons, audience, and creators.


The Oxford Illustrated History of the World

The Oxford Illustrated History of the World

Author: Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-01-03

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 0191067199

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Imagine the planet, as if from an immense distance of time and space, as a galactic observer might see it—with the kind of objectivity that we, who are enmeshed in our history, can ́t attain. The Oxford Illustrated History of the World encompasses the whole span of human history. It brings together some of the world's leading historians, under the expert guidance of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, to tell the 200,000-year story of our world, from the emergence of homo sapiens through to the twenty-first century: the environmental convulsions; the interplay of ideas (good and bad); the cultural phases and exchanges; the collisions and collaborations in politics; the successions of states and empires; the unlocking of energy; the evolutions of economies; the contacts, conflicts, and contagions that have all contributed to making the world we now inhabit.


Puccini

Puccini

Author: Michele Girardi

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2000-08-15

Total Pages: 558

ISBN-13: 9780226297576

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Puccini's operas are among the most popular and widely performed in the world, yet few books have examined his body of work from an analytical perspective. This volume remedies that lack in lively prose accessible to scholars and opera enthusiasts alike.


Middle English Literature

Middle English Literature

Author: Christopher Cannon

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2008-04-07

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0745624413

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book provides a boldly original account of Middle English literature from the Norman Conquest to the beginning of the sixteenth century. It argues that these centuries are, in fundamental ways, the momentous period in our literary history, for they are the long moment in which the category of literature itself emerged as English writing began to insist, for the first time, that it floated free of any social reality or function. This book also charts the complex mechanisms by which English writing acquired this power in a series of linked close readings of both canonical and more obscure texts. It encloses those readings in five compelling accounts of much broader cultural areas, describing, in particular, the productive relationship of Middle English writing to medieval technology, insurgency, statecraft and cultural place, concluding with an in depth account of the particular arguments, emphases and techniques English writers used to claim a wholly new jurisdiction for their work. Both this history and its readings are everywhere informed by the most exciting developments in recent Middle English scholarship as well as literary and cultural theory. It serves as an introduction to all these areas as well as a contribution, in its own right, to each of them.


The Grove Book of Opera Singers

The Grove Book of Opera Singers

Author: Laura Williams Macy

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 649

ISBN-13: 0195337654

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Covering over 1500 singers from the birth of opera to the present day, this marvelous volume will be an essential resource for all serious opera lovers and an indispensable companion to the enormously successful Grove Book of Operas. The most comprehensive guide to opera singers ever produced, this volume offers an alphabetically arranged collection of authoritative biographies that range from Marion Anderson (the first African American to perform at the Met) to Benedict Zak (the classical tenor and close friend and colleague of Mozart). Readers will find fascinating articles on such opera stars as Maria Callas and Enrico Caruso, Ezio Pinza and Fyodor Chaliapin, Lotte Lehmann and Jenny Lind, Lily Pons and Luciano Pavarotti. The profiles offer basic information such as birth date, vocal style, first debut, most memorable roles, and much more. But these articles often go well beyond basic biographical information to offer colorful portraits of the singer's personality and vocal style, plus astute evaluations of their place in operatic history and many other intriguing observations. Many entries also include suggestions for further reading, so that anyone interested in a particular performer can explore their life and career in more depth. In addition, there are indexes of singers by voice type and by opera role premiers. The articles are mostly drawn from the acclaimed Grove Music Online and have been fully revised, and the book is further supplemented by more than 40 specially commissioned articles on contemporary singers. A superb new guide from the first name in opera reference, The Grove Book of Opera Singers is a lively and authoritative work, beautifully illustrated with color and black-and-white pictures. It is an essential volume--and the perfect gift--for opera lovers everywhere.


Opera in the Jazz Age

Opera in the Jazz Age

Author: Alexandra Wilson

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0190912669

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Opera in the Jazz Age: Cultural Politics in 1920s Britain explores the interaction between opera and popular culture at a moment when there was a growing imperative to categorize art forms as "highbrow," "middlebrow," or "lowbrow." In this provocative and timely study, Alexandra Wilson considers how the opera debate of the 1920s continues to shape the ways in which we discuss the art form, and draws connections between the battle of the brows and present-day discussions about elitism.


Opera 101

Opera 101

Author: Fred Plotkin

Publisher: Hyperion

Published: 1994-12

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Written by an opera insider and featuring an introduction by Placido Domingo, here is a thorough, friendly, and truly complete guide to learning how to love and appreciate the opera. After a brief history of opera, the book includes a guide to operatic terms, a minute-by-minute listener's guide to 11 central works, a list of recommended books and recordings and much more.