Download or read book Cilea s Adriana Lecouvreur written by Burton D Fisher and published by Opera Journeys Publishing. This book was released on with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Burton D. Fisher's extremely popular Mini Guides feature Principal Characters in the Opera, Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with Music Highlight Examples, and an insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis of the opera.
Download or read book A Night at the Opera written by Sir Denis Forman and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2011-10-05 with total page 980 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Delightful and anti-reverential”—Sunday Times (London) With an encyclopedic knowledge of opera and a delightful dash of irreverence, Sir Denis Forman throws open the world of opera—its structure, composers, conductors, and artists—in this hugely informative guide. A Night at the Opera dissects the eighty-three most popular operas recorded on compact disc, from Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. For each opera, Sir Denis details the plot and cast of characters, awarding stars to parts that are “worth looking out for,” “really good,” or, occasionally, “stunning.” He goes on to tell the history of each opera and its early reception. Finally, each work is graded from alpha to gamma (although the Ring cycle gets an “X”), and Sir Denis has no qualms about voicing his opinion: the first act of Fidelio is “a bit of a mess,” while the last scene of Don Giovanni “towers above the comic finales of Figaro and Così and whether or not [it] is Mozart's greatest opera, it is certainly his most powerful finale.” The guide also presents brief biographies of the great composers, conductors, and singers. A glossary of musical terms is included, as well as Operatica, or the essential elements of opera, from the proper place and style of the audience's applause (and boos) to the use of subtitles. A Night at the Opera is for connoisseurs and neophytes alike. It will entertain and inform, delight and (perhaps) infuriate, providing a subject for lively debate and ready reference for years to come.
Download or read book Puccini Without Excuses written by William Berger and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Puccini is the most beloved composer of opera in the world: one quarter of all opera performances in the U.S. are of his operas, his music pervades movie soundtracks, and his plots have infiltrated our popular culture. But, although Puccini’s art still captivates audiences and the popularity of such works as Tosca, La Bohéme, and Madama Butterfly has never waned, he has long been a victim of critical snobbery and cultural marginalization. In this witty and informative guide for beginners and fans alike, William Berger sets the record straight, reclaiming Puccini as a serious artist. Combining his trademark irreverent humor with passionate enthusiasm, Berger strikes just the right balance of introductory information and thought-provoking analysis. He includes a biography, discussions of each opera, a glossary, fun facts and anecdotes, and above all keen insight into Puccini’s enduring power. For anyone who loves Puccini and for anyone who just wonders what all the fuss is about, Puccini Without Excuses is funny, challenging, and always a pleasure to read. INCLUDES: • Why Puccini’s art and its message of hope is crucial to our world today • How Anglo audiences often miss the mythic significance of his operas • The use of his music as shorthand in films, from A Room with a View to Fatal Attraction • A scene-by scene analysis of each opera • A guide to the wealth of available recordings, books, and videos
Download or read book Arias for Soprano written by Hal Leonard Corp. and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1991-05-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Vocal Collection). Contents: Handel: V'adoro pupille (Giulio Cesare) Mozart: Porgi, amor (Le Nozze di Figaro) * Dove sono (Le Nozze Figaro) * Deh vieni, non tardar (Le Nozze di Figaro) * Bester Jungling (Der Schauspieldirektor) * Batti, batti, bel Masetto (Don Giovanni) * Vedrai carino (Don Giovanni) * Ach, ich fuhl's (Die Zauberflote) Beethoven: O war' ich schon mit dir vereint (Fidelio) C.M. von Weber: Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen (Der Freischutz) Verdi: Caro nome (Rigoletto) * Saper vorreste (Un Ballo in Maschera) * Sul fil d'un soffio etesio (Falstaff) Gounod: The Jewel Song (Faust) * Ah! Je veux vivre (Romeo et Juliette) Bizet: Je dis que rien ne m 'epouvante (Carmen) Offenbach: Elle a fui, la tourterelle! (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) Massenet: Adieu, notre petite table (Manon) Leoncavallo: Ballatella (I Pagliacci) Puccini: Mi chiamano Mimi (La Boheme) * Donde lieta (La Boheme) * Quando men vo (La Boheme) * Un bel di (Madama Butterfly) * O mio babbino caro (Gianni Schicchi) * Signore, ascolta (Turandot) * Tu che di gel sei cinta (Turandot) Menotti: The Black Swan (The Medium) * Monica's Waltz (The Medium) Moore: Willow Song (The Ballad of Baby Doe) * The Silver Aria (The Ballad of Baby Doe) Mechem: Fair Robin, I love (Tartuffe).
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth Century Opera written by Mervyn Cooke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-12-08 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book IO Son L Umile Ancella written by and published by . This book was released on 2012-09 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the opera "Adriana Lecouvreur," this gorgeous melody has been skillfully set for women's choir by Nancy Grundahl. The original aria requires a mature singer and conductor. As a choral piece, it requires an equally mature chorus and a skilled conductor who can shape this very rubato and expressive music into a cohesive ensemble experience. When that ensemble sound is achieved, this piece will not soon be forgotten by singers or their audiences.
Download or read book The Good Opera Guide written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 902 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is an excerpt of what The Good Opera Guide has to say about Cilea & rsquo;s Adriana Lecouvreur : & ldquo;The one about the star of stage and screen whose rival sends her a bouquet of poison gas violets. She sniffs it: snuffs it. & rdquo; The Good Opera Guide is not only for regular operagoers but also for people who are new to the world of opera, or indeed people who want to bluff their way through a performance! It is written with humor and is entertaining as well as informative. Where else would you find a & ldquo;dagger count & rdquo; for La Gioconda, and have Hansel and Gretel categorized as a & ldquo;Gingerbread Opera & rdquo;? From Adriana Lecouvreur to Mozart & rsquo;s Die Zauberfl & ouml;te, for each opera, Sir Denis details the plot and cast of characters, awarding stars to parts that are & ldquo;worth looking out for, & rdquo; & ldquo;really good, & rdquo; or, occasionally, & ldquo;stunning. & rdquo; He goes on to tell the history of each opera and its early reception. Finally, each work is graded from alpha to gamma, and Sir Denis has no qualms about voicing his opinion. The guide also presents brief biographies of the great composers, conductors, and singers. A glossary of musical terms is included, as well as & ldquo;Operatica, & rdquo; or the essential elements of opera, from the proper place and style of the audience & rsquo;s applause (and boos) to the use of subtitles. & ldquo;The first guide to take the sensible decision of separating comments on the music (serious and helpful) from descriptions of the plot (invariably flippant and often funny). & rdquo; & mdash; The Sunday Telegraph Sir Denis Forman (1917 & ndash;2013) was for many years chairman and chief executive of Granada Television. He was also deputy chairman of the Royal Opera House for nine years. Other works include The Good Wagner Guide.
Download or read book Maria Callas s Lyric and Coloratura Arias written by Ginger Dellenbaugh and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 40 years after her death, the legend of Maria Callas, “La Divina Assoluta,” remains unsurpassed. Much has been written about her sensational opera career and fraught private life, from her definitive mastery of iconic opera roles to her love affairs and tantrums. The prototype for the 20th century celebrity diva, Callas emblematizes the cliche of tormented talent – genius in the ring with catastrophe. Her extraordinary voice, in particular, has become an object of cult-like adoration and cultural significance almost with a life of its own: as fetish object, as sophisticated sonic signifier, and most recently, as the lifeblood for a Callas hologram. Such adoration is not without consequences. When Callas is transformed into a vessel for such transcendent magic, it overshadows what is perhaps her most superhuman ability – the masterful technique she deployed to shape and craft her astounding instrument. Singing bodies are working bodies, enacting an intimate and complex form of artistic labor and cultural signification. Using one of Callas's first recital recordings from 1954, this book envisions each aria as a lens to examine various aspects of vocalization and cultural reception of the feminized voice in both classical and pop culture, from Homer's Sirens to Star Trek. With references to works by Marina Abramovic, Charles Baudelaire, Michel Chion, Wayne Koestenbaum, Greil Marcus, and Farah Jasmine Griffin, as well as films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jonathan Demme, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, each chapter explores phenomena unique to the singing voice, including the operatic screaming point, the politics of listening, and the singing simulacrum.
Download or read book Voltaire in Love written by Nancy Mitford and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inimitable Nancy Mitford’s account of Voltaire’s fifteen-year relationship with the Marquise du Châtelet—the renowned mathematician who introduced Isaac Newton’s revolutionary new physics to France—is a spirited romp in the company of two extraordinary individuals as well as an erudite and gossipy guide to French high society during the Enlightenment. Mitford’s story is as delicious as it is complicated. The marquise was in love with another mathematician, Maupertuis, while she had an unexpected rival for Voltaire’s affections in the future Frederick the Great of Prussia (and later in the philosophe’s own niece). There was, at least, no jealous husband to contend with: the Marquis du Châtelet, Mitford assures us, behaved perfectly. The beau monde of Paris was, however, distraught at the idea of the lovers’ brilliant conversation going to waste on the windswept hills of Champagne, site of the Château de Cirey, where experimental laboratories, a darkroom, and a library of more than twenty-one thousand volumes enabled them to pursue their amours philosophiques. From time to time the threat of impending arrest would send Voltaire scurrying across the border into Holland, but his irrepressible charm—and the interventions of powerful friends—always made it possible for him resume his studies with the cherished marquise.
Download or read book The Venice Adriana written by Ethan Mordden and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greek-American opera singer Adriana Grafanas is the most famous opera singer of her time and her scandals, temperament, and cancellations were the stuff of international headlines. Now, in her early 60s, her voice is in shreds and she is near retirement. Sent to Venice to pull together her autobiography, American Mark Trigger is drawn into the compelling world of Adriana and of Venice itself. Trying to uncover the truth about Adriana's life, Mark instead discovers his own passions--men and Adriana's music. Bold, sensual, and evocative of a forgotten time and place, The Venice Adriana is Ethan Mordden at his finest.
Download or read book The Opera Lover s Companion written by Charles Osborne and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by a well-known authority, this book consists of 175 entries that set some of the most popular operas within the context of their composer's career, outline the plot, discuss the music, and more.
Download or read book The New Pocket Kobb s Opera Book written by Earl Of Harwood and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Pocket Kobbe's Complete Opera Book is the world's leading reference work on opera, and (in the words of Bernard Levin) 'no single-volume operatic guide can possibly compare with it'. Kobbe is the only book which summaries the libretti of the world's opera, describes their music and gives a history of their performance within a single volume. But it is a large and relatively expensive book. The new pocket edition, at a price accessible to the huge new audience for opera, has been redesigned and extended, existing entries have been rewritten, and new operas included. The total number of works covered is now over 200, including important new works like John Adams Nixon in China, Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain and Thomas Ades's Powder Her Face, and a number of half-forgotten works that are now undergoing revival. Unlike the previous edition, it is now simply arranged, alphabetically by composer. Lord Harewood's strongly individual commentaries, together with his unparalleled knowledge of and enthusiasm for opera, make the New Pocket Kobbe a book no opera-goer can afford to be without.
Download or read book More Legendary Voices written by and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1995 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the delectable Conchita Supervia (who made her debut at fourteen!) to the divine Maria Callas; from the gentle Elisabeth Schumann to the fiery Maria Jeritza (adored by the public, feared by several leading tenors and spat at by a fellow diva); from the giant Lauritz Melchior to the versatile Richard Tauber - More Legendary Voices mixes biography, anecdote, opinion, and penetrating analysis of each singer's strengths and weaknesses. Once more Nigel Douglas, the international tenor and well-known radio presenter, brings to this collection his professional knowledge of the world of opera, his infectious enthusiasm for the subject, and a natural gift for distilling the essence of a singer's life and career into one entertaining and instructive chapter.
Download or read book New Grove Book of Operas written by Stanley Sadie and published by . This book was released on with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's defiinitive single volume of opera reference including: full plot synopses, cast lists, singers, composers, literary and social history, recordings, and much more. Covers over 250 operas performed over the last quarter-century, additional works selected for interest, merit, or historical significance, 64 pages of color plates, 100 black-and-white photographs, fully cross-referenced with indexes and a glossary.
Download or read book New York Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1994-03-21 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York magazine was born in 1968 after a run as an insert of the New York Herald Tribune and quickly made a place for itself as the trusted resource for readers across the country. With award-winning writing and photography covering everything from politics and food to theater and fashion, the magazine's consistent mission has been to reflect back to its audience the energy and excitement of the city itself, while celebrating New York as both a place and an idea.
Download or read book More Opera Scenes for Class and Stage written by Mary Elaine Wallace and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reviewing the first volume of Opera Scenes for Class and Stage, Walter Ducloux wrote in the Opera Journal: "If you can come up, within five seconds, with an operatic excerpt involving two sopranos, four mezzo-sopranos, two tenors, and a bass, you don't need this book. Otherwise hurry and buy it. I keep it on my night table." In More Opera Scenes, the Wallaces have reviewed 100 additional operas and have chosen over 700 scenes. The popular "Table of Voice Categories" providing more than 300 combinations is also featured in this volume.
Download or read book Opera in Translation written by Adriana Şerban and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume covers aspects of opera translation within the Western world and in Asia, as well as some of opera’s many travels between continents, countries, languages and cultures—and also between genres and media. The concept of ‘adaptation’ is a thread running through the sixteen contributions, which encompass a variety of composers, operas, periods and national traditions. Sung translation, libretto translation, surtitling, subtitling are discussed from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Exploration of aspects such as the relationship between language and music, multimodality, intertextuality, cultural and linguistic transfer, multilingualism, humour, identity and stereotype, political ideology, the translator’s voice and the role of the audience is driven by a shared motivation: a love of opera and of the beauty it has never ceased to provide through the centuries, and admiration for the people who write, compose, perform, direct, translate, or otherwise contribute to making the joy of opera a part of our lives.
