The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera
The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera

Author: Mervyn Cooke

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-12-08

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 9780521780094

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This Companion celebrates the extraordinary riches of the twentieth-century operatic repertoire in a collection of specially commissioned essays written by a distinguished team of academics, critics and practitioners. Beginning with a discussion of the century's vital inheritance from late-romantic operatic traditions in Germany and Italy, the text embraces fresh investigations into various aspects of the genre in the modern age, with a comprehensive coverage of the work of individual composers from Debussy and Schoenberg to John Adams and Harrison Birtwistle. Traditional stylistic categorizations (including symbolism, expressionism, neo-classicism and minimalism) are reassessed from new critical perspectives, and the distinctive operatic traditions of Continental and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and United States are subjected to fresh scrutiny. The volume includes essays devoted to avant-garde music theatre, operettas and musicals, filmed opera, and ends with a discussion of the position of the genre in today's cultural marketplace.

Tonality as Drama
Tonality as Drama

Author: Edward David Latham

Publisher: University of North Texas Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1574412493

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Drawing on the fields of dramaturgy, music theory, and historical musicology, this book answers a question about twentieth-century music: Why does tonality persist in opera, even after it has been abandoned in other genres?

Twentieth Century Opera
Twentieth Century Opera

Author: George Whitney Martin

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 732

ISBN-13: 9780879102753

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(Limelight). Martin provides a guide to opera that is sweeping in its scope, thorough in its detail, and authoritative in its commentary. He recalls a century of achievement in an art form that today enjoys unprecedented popularity and that has been generously enriched by challenging works in many cases yet to be fully recognized of the modern era.

Twentieth-Century British Authors and the Rise of Opera in Britain
Twentieth-Century British Authors and the Rise of Opera in Britain

Author: Irene Morra

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-02-17

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 1317005856

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This book is the first to examine in depth the contributions of major British authors such as W. H. Auden and E. M. Forster, as critics and librettists, to the rise of British opera in the twentieth century. The perceived literary values of British authors, as much as the musical innovations of British composers, informed the aesthetic development of British opera. Indeed, British opera emerged as a simultaneously literary and musical project. Too often, operatic adaptations are compared superficially to their original sources. This is a particular problem for British opera, which has become increasingly defined artistically by the literary sophistication of its narrative sources. The resulting collaborations between literary figures and composers have crucial implications for the development of both opera and literature. Twentieth-Century British Authors and the Rise of Opera in Britain reveals the importance of this literary involvement in operatic adaptation to literature and literary studies, to music and musicology, and to cultural and theoretical studies.

The Rest Is Noise
The Rest Is Noise

Author: Alex Ross

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2007-10-16

Total Pages: 706

ISBN-13: 1429932880

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Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.

Curtain, Gong, Steam
Curtain, Gong, Steam

Author: Gundula Kreuzer

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2018-05-18

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0520966554

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In this innovative book, Gundula Kreuzer argues for the foundational role of technologies in the conception, production, and study of nineteenth-century opera. She shows how composers increasingly incorporated novel audiovisual effects in their works and how the uses and meanings of the required apparatuses changed through the twentieth century, sometimes still resonating in stagings, performance art, and popular culture today. Focusing on devices (which she dubs “Wagnerian technologies”) intended to amalgamate opera’s various media while veiling their mechanics, Kreuzer offers a practical counternarrative to Wagner’s idealist theories of total illusionism. At the same time, Curtain, Gong, Steam’s multifaceted exploration of the three titular technologies repositions Wagner as catalyst more than inventor in the history of operatic production. With its broad chronological and geographical scope, this book deepens our understanding of the material and mechanical conditions of historical operatic practice as well as of individual works, both well known and obscure.

The Opera of the Twentieth Century
The Opera of the Twentieth Century

Author: William Schoell

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-01-24

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1476605564

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In the late 1500s in Florence, aristocrats of the Renaissance renovated classical Greek dramas into dramatic musicals and gave birth to the first operas. After centuries of transformation, the opera is still appreciated as a historically dynamic paradigm of the fine arts. Composers of the twentieth century have worked hard to fashion a voice distinct from the romantic composers of the nineteenth century and the traditions that preceded them, and this volume explores the extent of their success. Beginning with a thorough introduction to the history of operatic forms and transformation, this book presents a comprehensive discussion of twentieth century opera. Giving ear to many composers and many styles--romantic and modern and assorted variations--the discussion includes such globally renowned composers as Strauss, Puccini, Prokofiev and Mascagni, as well as the esoteric works of less famous composers. Spanning as it does from Puccini's Tosca and Charpentier's Louise to Heggie's Dead Man Walking and Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, twentieth century operatic form has something for every taste. The discussion is therefore structured chronologically and directed at exploring this complex diversity and ingenuity of twentieth-century styles. Examples from across the globe and firsthand commentary from contemporary operatic professionals complement the discussion. Concluding chapters comment upon the operatic presence in the twenty-first century and the future of operatic forms.

Concert Music of the Twentieth Century
Concert Music of the Twentieth Century

Author: Mark A. Radice

Publisher: Pearson

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13:

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Concert Music of the Twentieth Century is about "concert music"--music for contemplation rather than for atmosphere. The repertoire discussed in these pages was written by composers with something important to say and with skills to do so. Many of the works discussed tie in with a long-standing, Western European tradition of art music, but an equal voice is given to culturally and ethnically diverse composers active during the past several decades. Radice provides data about the pieces, the composers who wrote them, and the contexts in which they originated. Our understanding and evaluation of music is a dynamic process and one that is subject to change. Music only has meaning within its social contexts, and these are expanding daily. Many non-Western nations have long-standing musical traditions and practices that have entered into the Western mainstream just as Western practices and traditions have influenced the musical cultures of the world to produce new and exciting possibilities for music making. Diversity has been a key element in the selection of topics for discussion, and the examples included here can serve as gateways for other investigations by interested readers. This book is a survey presenting a broad array of representative works. The personalities explored include composers, performers, theorists, teachers, and organizations. In many cases, the information comes directly from composers whom the author has interviewed. The discussions in this book demonstrate that the world of contemporary music is a fascinating one that offers rich rewards to those interested in understanding the vibrant dynamics of concert music.

Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century
Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century

Author: Tomás Marco

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 9780674831025

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From the exhilarating impact of Isaac Albeniz at the beginning of the century to today's complex and adventurous avant-garde, this complete interpretive history introduces twentieth-century Spanish music to English-speaking readers. With graceful authority, Tomas Marco, award-winning composer, critic, and bright light of Spanish music since the 1960s, covers the entire spectrum of composers and their works: trends and movements, critical and popular reception, national institutions, influences from Europe and beyond, and the effect of such historic events as the Spanish Civil War and the death of Franco. Marco's penetrating aesthetic critiques are threaded throughout each phase of this rich account. Marco provides detailed coverage of the key figures, induding a chapter devoted entirely to Manuel de Falla--Spain's most celebrated twentieth-century composer--and a panoramic survey of recent arrivals on the contemporary music scene. Exploring the rise and fall of the zarzuela, the author highlights innovative works in this authentic Spanish genre. He analyzes the attempts to find an audience for Spanish opera; demonstrates the flowering of symphonic and chamber music at the beginning of this century; traces currents such as romanticism, impressionism, and neoclassicism; and tracks the influence of Spain's distinctive regional folk traditions. Covering musical innovation after Spain's emergence from its period of isolation, Marco notes the speed with which many composers absorbed the work of Stravinsky and Bartok, the twelve-tone system, aleatory forms, electronic techniques, and other European developments. English-speaking scholars, musicians, critics and general readers have for decades been without full information on the rich and varied work coming out of Spain in this century. This lively history fills a long-felt need and fills it superbly, with the knowledge and insights of a major figure in the musical world.

Early 20th Century Opera Singers
Early 20th Century Opera Singers

Author: Nicholas E. Limansky

Publisher: YBK Publishers

Published: 2016-04

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 9781936411436

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Historical recordings by opera singers have proven since 1900 to offer much reward to the singer, student, listener, and collector alike. In the first book of this kind to appear in decades, Nicholas Limansky explains why critical listening is important and describes the merits of analyzing and comparing the recordings of previous generations of singers with those of the present. He also recounts how markedly record collecting has changed through the decades-especially in large cities like New York-mainly due to technological advance. He not only treats collecting 78 rpm disks, but LPs and CDs as well. Expired copyright now enables many of these early recordings to easily be acquired and collected, enabling the broad-scale comparison of style, technique, and vocal quality among the famous performers of earlier eras. The author points out what to look for among these differences in style, technique, and ability-both good and bad. (On occasion, the most famous are not the best ) With emphasis on today's student and collector, Limansky provides information about where, how, and on what labels given recordings can be found. He discusses printed resources that offer the interested even more information. Beginners and veterans alike will find much of interest in this far-ranging book. Nicholas Limansky studied voice at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and has a performance degree from the University of West Virginia. He has sung with major professional choral groups in New York City that include The Bach Aria Group, Musica Sacra, New York Choral Artists (NY Philharmonic), Opera Orchestra of New York, The Netherlands Ballet, and Alvin Ailey (Revelations, Rainbow). He has written performance reviews for the Italian publication, "Rassegna Melodrammatic," and reviewed new vocal releases of historical singers for "Opera News, The Record Collector, Classical Singer, " and "Opera Quarterly." He lectures at the New York Vocal Record Collectors Society and is a member of its board of directors.