Download or read book The New Book of Opera Anecdotes written by Ethan Mordden and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on the long-established success of Ethan Mordden's Opera Anecdotes, The New Book Of Opera Anecdotes continues where the original left off, bringing into view the new corps of major singers that arose after the first book's publication in 1985 -- artists such as Renee Fleming, Roberto Alagna, Deborah Voigt, Jonas Kaufmann, Kathleen Battle, and Jane Eaglen (who tested her family with Turandot's three riddles and got a very original answer). There are also fresh adventures with opera's fabled great -- Rossini, Wagner, Toscanini (whose temper tantrums are always good for a story), Franco Corelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Leontyne Price (who, when the Met's Rudolf Bing offered her the voice-killing role of Abigaille in Verdi's Nabucco, said, "Man, are you crazy?"). Almost all the stories in The New Book Of Opera Anecdotes are completely new, whether from the present or the past, taking in many historical developments, from the rise of the conductor to the appearance of the gymmed-up "bari-hunk" who refuses to play any role in which he can't appear shirtless. While most of Mordden's anecdotes are humorous, some are emotionally touching, such as one recounting a Met production of Mozart's The Marriage Of Figaro in which Renee Fleming sang alongside her own six-year-old daughter. Other tales are suspenseful, as when Tito Gobbi shows off his ability to make anyone turn around simply by staring at his or her back. He tries it on Nazi monster Joseph Goebbels, who does turn around, and then starts to move toward Gobbi, seething with rage, step by step... Mordden recounts these stories in his own unique voice, amplifying events for reading pleasure and adding in background material so the opera newcomer can play on the same field as the aficionado. Witty, dramatoic, and at times a little shocking, The New Book Of Opera Anecdotes will be a welcome addition to any opera fan's library.

Download or read book Opera Anecdotes written by Ethan Mordden and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1988 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From backstage squabbles and box-office chicanery to the gallantry and glory of creation, this book of stories unveils a delightful panorama of opera lore. "An opera lover's handbook that should always be near at hand".--Schuyler G. Chapin, Columbia University.

Download or read book Wagner s Parsifal written by Roger Scruton and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A superbly insightful and moving exploration of Wagner's last opera, by one of Britain's leading intellectuals Wagner's last music-drama tells the story of Parsifal, the 'pure fool, knowing through compassion', who has been called to rescue the Kingdom of the Grail from the sins that have polluted it. The Grail is a symbol of purity in a world of lust and power, but although Parsifal is the culmination of Wagner's life-long obsession with the religious frame of mind, the redemption sought by his characters is far from the Christian archetype. For Wagner, redemption occurs inthis life, when compassion prevails over enslavement, and purity replaces spiritual pollution. His music here ties together suffering and contrition, sin and forgiveness, downfall and redemption in an inextricable knot, healing the fractures and uniting the warring elements in human life in a way that is clear, convincing and uncanny. More than any other of his works, Parsifal expresses in music a depth of feeling for which we do not have words. This short but penetrating book, by a writer who was uniquely both a leading philosopher and musicologist, shows us how Wagner achieves this profound work, explaining the story, its musical ideas, and their coming together into a sublime whole which gives us the musical equivalent of forgiveness and closure. There are few writers who can so enhance our understanding of one of the greatest works in western music.

Download or read book Temple of the Scapegoat Opera Stories written by Alexander Kluge and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revolving around the opera, these tales are an “archaeological excavation of the slag-heaps of our collective existence” (W. G. Sebald) Combining fact and fiction, each of the one hundred and two tales of Alexander Kluge’s Temple of the Scapegoat (dotted with photos of famous operas and their stars) compresses a lifetime of feeling and thought: Kluge is deeply engaged with the opera and an inventive wellspring of narrative notions. The titles of his stories suggest his many turns of mind: “Total Commitment,” “Freedom,” “Reality Outrivals Theater,” “The Correct Slowing-Down at the Transitional Point Between Terror and an Inkling of Freedom,” “A Crucial Character (Among Persons None of Whom Are Who They Think They Are),” and “Deadly Vocal Power vs. Generosity in Opera.” An opera, Kluge says, is a blast furnace of the soul, telling of the great singer Leonard Warren who died onstage, having literally sung his heart out. Kluge introduces a Tibetan scholar who realizes that opera “is about comprehension and passion. The two never go together. Passion overwhelms comprehension. Comprehension kills passion. This appears to be the essence of all operas, says Huang Tse-we.” He also comes to understand that female roles face the harshest fates: “Compared to the mass of soprano victims (out of 86,000 operas, 64,000 end with the death of the soprano), the sacrifice of tenors is small (out of 86,000 operas 1,143 tenors are a write-off).”

Download or read book Opera Stories written by Henry Lowell Mason and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Wagner Opera Stories written by Grace Edson Barber and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Opera Stories in Verse written by Hugh Lawrence Monro Wyles and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-01-25 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book of poetry, squeezing the intense drama of the art of opera into the intense drama of the poet's own interpretation and art of verse. An intense book in its own right.

Download or read book The Metropolitan Opera Stories of the Great Operas written by John W. Freeman and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1984 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here at last is the definitive opera story collection, the only one now authorized by the Metropolitan Opera. Written by the associate editor of Opera News magazine, the volume includes the complete plots of 150 different operas, biographical information on all of the 72 composers represented, easy access to the stories through both a table of contents and an index, and a foreword by Peter Allen.

Download or read book Opera Stories in Few Words written by Henry Lowell Mason and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annual Magazine Subject index written by Frederick Winthrop Faxon and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dramatic index for 1912-16, 1919-49 accompanied by an appendix: The Dramatic books and plays (in English) (title varies slightly). This bibliography was incorporated in the main list in 1917-18.

Download or read book The Dramatic Index written by and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annual Magazine Subject index written by and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Magazine Subject index written by and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains the cumulation of the subject index issued in the quarterly numbers of the Bulletin of bibliography and magazine subject-index.

Download or read book Fun for Everyone written by Comunity service, inc and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Catalogue of the Sadie Knowland Coe Music Collection written by and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Musical Opinion and Music Trade Review written by and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 1012 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Story Hour written by Carnegie Library of Atlanta and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: