Dorothea Link examines singers' voices and casting practices in late eighteenth-century Italian opera as exemplified in Vienna's court opera from 1783 to 1791. The investigation into the singers' voices proceeds on two levels: understanding the performers in terms of the vocal-dramatic categories employed in opera at the time; and creating vocal ......
Queer Opera explores narratives and music of selected operas to argue that composers have turned to opera to underscore lived queer experiences and that they have served as agents for change.
Paul Thom argues that opera is a set of practices framed by the concepts of work, interpretation, performance, and art. His argument is that operatic works have the potential to be art, but so do operatic productions, independently of their value as interpretations of the works they stage.
Avidly Reads Opera is a love letter to the music and those who love it, complete with playlists, a crowdsourced tip sheet from ultra-fans to newbies, and stories of the turbulent, genre-busting, and often hilarious history of opera and its audiences.
A powerful memoir from one of the world's most successful orchestral conductors, whose life story, talent and dedication to music is an inspiration to read. The book documents an insider's view of the complex relationships between an opera house, its orchestra, the conductor and singers.
"In times of delirious, madcap fun and political turmoil, opera fans have expressed their passion by dispatching records into the cosmos, building fairy-tale castles, and singing together through the arduous work of social justice. OPERA welcomes readers and listeners to a community full of friendship, passion, critique-and always, beautiful ......
A colorful new translation and notes by Frederick Paul Walter spotlight the libretto, lyrics, and stage directions of Wagner's colossal masterpiece, getting the most basic ingredient right: the actual story! It contains gorgeously illustrated with dazzling graphic-novel artwork, plus classic pictures by Arthur Rackham and others.
No musical partnership has enjoyed greater success during its time span than that of Gilbert and Sullivan in the later 19th century. No fewer than a dozen Savoy operas are still regularly performed. The operas present audiences with splendidly rich and satirical evocations of Victorian England and its society: the prime subject matter of this ......
With her superb coloratura soprano, passion for the world of opera, and down-to-earth personality, Beverly Sills made high art accessible to millions from the time of her meteoric rise to stardom in 1966 until her death in 2007. An unlikely pop culture phenomenon, Sills was equally at ease on talk shows, on the stage, and in the role of arts ......
