Download or read book Horse Opera written by Peter Stanfield and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this innovative take on a neglected chapter of film history, Peter Stanfield challenges the commonly held view of the singing cowboy as an ephemeral figure of fun and argues instead that he was one of the most important cultural figures to emerge out of the Great Depression.The rural or newly urban working-class families who flocked to see the latest exploits of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, andother singing cowboys were an audience largely ignored by mainstreamHollywood film. Hard hit by the depression, faced with the threat--and often the reality--of dispossession and dislocation, pressured to adapt to new ways of living, these small-town filmgoers saw their ambitions, fantasies, and desires embodied in the singing cowboy and their social and political circumstances dramatized in ""B"" Westerns.Stanfield traces the singing cowboy's previously uncharted roots in the performance tradition of blackface minstrelsy and its literary antecedents in dime novels, magazine fiction, and the novels of B. M. Bower, showing how silent cinema conventions, the developing commercial music media, and the prevailing conditions of film production shaped the ""horse opera"" of the 1930s. Cowboy songs offered an alternative to the disruptive modern effects of jazz music, while the series Western--tapping into aesthetic principles shunned by the aspiring middle class--emphasized stunts, fist fights, slapstick comedy, disguises, and hidden identities over narrative logic and character psychology. Singing cowboys also linked recording, radio, publishing, live performance, and film media.Entertaining and thought-provoking, Horse Opera recovers not only the forgotten cowboys of the 1930s but also their forgotten audiences: the ordinary men and women whose lives were brightened by the sights and songs of the singing Western."
Download or read book A Night in at the Opera written by Jeremy Tambling and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering an arresting range of accounts by specialists in music, media, and popular culture on how the popular arts have represented opera, this book raises issues about the sociology of music and its implications for television and video culture.
Download or read book The History and Romance of the Horse written by Arthur Vernon and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping panorama of horse-related history and lore that will appeal to readers of all ages, this illustrated book profiles race horses, working and war horses, various breeds, and much more.
Download or read book Operas in English written by Margaret Ross Griffel and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2012-12-21 with total page 1015 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although many opera dictionaries and encyclopedias are available, very few are devoted exclusively to operas in a single language. In this revised and expanded edition of Operas in English: A Dictionary, Margaret Ross Griffel brings up to date her original work on operas written specifically to an English text (including works both originally prepared in English, as well as English translations). Since its original publication in 1999, Griffel has added nearly 800 entries to the 4,300 from the original volume, covering the world of opera in the English language from 1634 through 2011. Listed alphabetically by letter, each opera entry includes alternative titles, if any; a full, descriptive title; the number of acts; the composer’s name; the librettist’s name, the original language of the libretto, and the original source of the text, with the source title; the date, place, and cast of the first performance; the date of composition, if it occurred substantially earlier than the premiere date; similar information for the first U.S. (including colonial) and British (i.e., in England, Scotland, or Wales) performances, where applicable; a brief plot summary; the main characters (names and vocal ranges, where known); some of the especially noteworthy numbers cited by name; comments on special musical problems, techniques, or other significant aspects; and other settings of the text, including non-English ones, and/or other operas involving the same story or characters (cross references are indicated by asterisks). Entries also include such information as first and critical editions of the score and libretto; a bibliography, ranging from scholarly studies to more informal journal articles and reviews; a discography; and information on video recordings. Griffel also includes four appendixes, a selective bibliography, and two indexes. The first appendix lists composers, their places and years of birth and death, and their operas included in the text as entries; the second does the same for librettists; the third records authors whose works inspired or were adapted for the librettos; and the fourth comprises a chronological listing of the A–Z entries, including as well as the date of first performance, the city of the premiere, the short title of the opera, and the composer. Griffel also include a main character index and an index of singers, conductors, producers, and other key figures.
Download or read book The Teapot Opera written by Arthur Tress and published by Abbeville Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When the curtain goes up on The Teapot Opera there is no music. There are no people, either. But there are plenty of characters: there's the teapot, of course, and a white plastic stallion, a china harpist, a skull, an expresso machine, chess pieces, fruit, the Michelin Tire man, fragments of a classical sculpture, ancient books, a souvenir bust of Teddy Roosevelt, valves and gauges of all kinds, a Shriner's fez, a glass eyeball, billiard balls, and so much more."--Jacket flap.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of American Opera written by Ken Wlaschin and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-10-16 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This encyclopedia lists, describes and cross-references everything to do with American opera: works (both operas and operettas), composers, librettists, singers, and source authors, along with relevant recordings. The approximately 1,750 entries range from ballad operas and composers of the 18th century to modern minimalists and video opera artists. Each opera entry consists of plot, history, premiere and cast, followed by a chronological listing of recordings, movies and videos.
Download or read book A Short History of Opera written by Donald Jay Grout and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 1049 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The fourth edition incorporates new scholarship that traces the most important developments in the evolution of musical drama. After surveying anticipations of the operatic form in the lyric theater of the Greeks, medieval dramatic music, and other forerunners, the book reveals the genre's beginnings in the seventeenth century and follows its progress to the present day."--Jacket.
Download or read book LIFE written by and published by . This book was released on 1946-10-07 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.
Download or read book Hearings written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce and published by . This book was released on 1959 with total page 1788 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Opera and the Golden West written by John Louis DiGaetani and published by Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Opera and the Golden West is a celebration of opera's difficult past in America. It focuses in part on early repertory and how European operatic masterpieces became part of American culture. This book also calls attention to the efforts of American composers as they continually tried to make original contributions to a foreign musical form. Throughout this anthology the contributors use a variety of approaches and styles to analyze the many aspects of opera, and how the form fared in the U.S. In addition to observing where opera has been in this country, this anthology also has an eye to the future. Opera presentation in the coming century may be very different from the current experience. Economics, always a critical factor, may well dictate a different scale of production. Changing tastes in directorial and production values and the expansion of television and video into the home are indicators that a new era has arrived.
Download or read book Holy Cow written by Boze Hadleigh and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We love animals but insult humans by calling them everything from weasels or pigs to sheep, mice, chickens, sharks, snakes, and bird-brains. Animal epithets, words, and phrases are so widespread we often take them for granted or remain ignorant of the fascinating stories and facts behind them. Spanning the entire animal kingdom, Holy Cow! explains: Why hot dogs are named after canines. Why people talk turkey or go cold turkey. Why curiosity killed the cat, although dogs are more curious about us. Why letting the cat out of the bag originally referred to a duped shopper. What a horse of another color is, what horsefeathers politely alludes to, why a mule is a lady’s slipper, and what horseradish has to do with horses. Why the combination of humans and cows probably led to capitalism—its name from Latin for head, as in heads of cows. Why holy cow and sacred cow have almost opposite meanings. Whether people actually chewed the fat or ate crow (and why it’s a crowbar). How a hog became a motorcycle and a chick a young woman. What happens to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. What buck has to do with being naked. Why the birds and the bees. Why a piggy bank and why one feeds the kitty. What lame ducks have to do with U.S. presidents. How red herring came about via activists opposed to fox hunting. Where snake oil, popular in the 1800s and rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, came from. That the proverbial fly in the ointment goes back to the Bible’s Ecclesiastes (10:1). How Swiss watchmakers created teensy-weensy coaches for fleas to pull in flea circuses. And much—much!—more. Don't be a lame duck and get this book!
Download or read book LIFE written by and published by . This book was released on 1946-10-28 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.
Download or read book The Space Opera Renaissance written by Kathryn Cramer and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2007-07-10 with total page 1887 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From "editor extraordinaire" (Publishers Weekly) David G. Hartwell and World Fantasy Award-winning editor Kathryn Cramer comes the best-ever anthology of one of science fiction's most vigorous subgenres: the space opera. "Space opera", once a derisive term for cheap pulp adventure, has come to mean something more in modern SF: compelling adventure stories told against a broad canvas, and written to the highest level of skill. Indeed, it can be argued that the "new space opera" is one of the defining streams of modern SF. Now, World Fantasy Award-winning anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have compiled a definitive overview of this subgenre, both as it was in the days of the pulp magazines, and as it has become in the 2000s. Included are major works from genre progenitors, popular favorites, and modern-day pioneers. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book The Western Paradox written by Bernard DeVoto and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This book is the fascinating record of DeVoto’s crusade to save the West from itself. . . . His arguments, insights, and passion are as relevant and urgent today as they were when he first put them on paper.”—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., from the Foreword Bernard DeVoto (1897-1955) was, according to the novelist Wallace Stegner, “a fighter for public causes, for conservation of our natural resources, for freedom of the press and freedom of thought.” A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, DeVoto is best remembered for his trilogy, The Year of Decision: 1846, Across the Wide Missouri, and The Course of Empire. He also wrote a column for Harper’s Magazine, in which he fulminated about his many concerns, particularly the exploitation and destruction of the American West. This volume brings together ten of DeVoto’s acerbic and still timely essays on Western conservation issues, along with his unfinished conservationist manifesto, Western Paradox, which has never before been published. The book also includes a foreword by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who was a student of DeVoto’s at Harvard University, and a substantial introduction by Douglas Brinkley and Patricia Limerick, both of which shed light on DeVoto’s work and legacy.
Download or read book Harold Prince and the American Musical Theater written by Foster Hirsch and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1989-04-06 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete look at the career of one of Broadway's most influential producer/directors. The elements of Prince's signature--his convention-challenging subject matter and use of music, the revitalizing theatricality of his production designs--are discussed in detail. Illustrated with photos from the hit shows which show his innovative concepts in decor and state movement.
Download or read book Myth Media and Culture in Star Wars written by Douglas Brode and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2012-06-14 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1977, Star Wars blazed across the screen to become one of the highest grossing and most beloved movies of all time. It was followed by two sequels and three prequels, all of which became blockbusters. Comic books, novels, graphic novels, and magazines devoted to the films have added to the mythology of George Lucas’s creation. Despite the impact of the franchise on popular culture, however, discussion of the films from a scholarly perspective has not kept pace with the films. In Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars: An Anthology, Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka have assembled an intriguing collection of essays addressing the influences that shaped the films, as well as the impact the franchise has had on popular culture. Contributors to this volume discuss the Star Wars universe and what its connection to various cultural touchstones—from fairy tales and Joseph Campbell to Disneyland and Marvel comics—mean to viewers. Essays examine the films in the franchise as well as incarnations of the Star Wars universe in video games, comic books, and television programs, including the films’ influence on new generations of filmmakers. A companion volume to Sex, Politics, and Culture in Star Wars, Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars is a diverse collection of criticism that investigates the dynamic force that Star Wars has become in popular culture, from every imaginable angle.
Download or read book The Black Hole of the Camera written by J.J. Murphy and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-03-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One acclaimed filmmaker takes the measure of another! Murphy’s candid and richly personal account of Andy Warhol’s filmmaking is a brilliant contribution to our understanding of one of cinema’s most original and prolific masters, exploring the artist's multiple forms of psychodrama with a filmmaker’s insight and attention to detail. As more and more of the restored Warhol films become available, this book will remain an indispensable handbook for film historians and general moviegoers alike—especially because it is such a genuine pleasure to read."—David E. James, author of The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. “Those of us who care about independent cinema have always struggled with Andy Warhol’s massive oeuvre. At long last J.J. Murphy, who has spent a lifetime making contributions to independent cinema, has undertaken the Herculean task of helping us understand Warhol’s development as a filmmaker. Murphy’s precision, stamina, and passion are evident in this examination of an immense body of work—as is his ability to report what he has discovered in a readable and informative manner. The Black Hole of the Camera helps us to re-conceptualize Warhol’s films not simply as mythic pranks, but as the diverse creations of a prolific and inventive film artist.”—Scott MacDonald, author of A Critical Cinema: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers (5 vols.). "In his careful firsthand study of Andy Warhol’s films, J. J. Murphy contributes to the ongoing revision of the enduring but misplaced perceptions of Warhol as a passive, remote, and one-dimensional artist. Murphy's discussions of authorship, the relation of content to form, the role of "dramatic conflict,” and the complexity of Warhol’s camera work show these perceptions to be stubborn myths. The Black Hole of the Camera offers a clear sense of the nuances of Warhol’s fascinating, prolific, and influential activities in filmmaking."—Reva Wolf, author of Andy Warhol, Poetry, and Gossip in the 1960s.