Classical Opera category: 1804 books

Purcell's Dido and Aeneas stands as the greatest operatic achievement of seventeenth-century England, and yet, despite its global renown, it remains cloaked in mystery. The date and place of its first performance cannot be fixed with precision, and the absolute accuracy of the surviving scores, which...

The Oratorio in the classical Era is the third volume of Howard Smither's monumental History of the Oratorio, continuing his synthesis and critical appraisal of the oratorio. His comprehensive study surpasses in scope and treatment all previous works on the subject. A fourth and final volume, on the...

This book develops a comparative analysis of the relationship between western art music, nations and nationalism. It explores the influence of emergent nations and nationalism on the development of classical music in Europe and North America and examines the distinctive themes, sounds and resonances...

Even at the beginning of the new millennium, the words twentieth-century music often inspire apprehension in audiences. While composers like Debussy, Vaughan Williams and Stravinsky have become concert-hall favourites, others such as Schoenberg, Boulez and Takemitsu are too often regarded as strange...

The classical music of Iraq, known as Iraqi Maqam, features classical and vernacular poetry sung by a virtuoso soloist and accompanied by a small instrumental ensemble. It is a remarkably cosmopolitan art, sharing many features with neighboring classical traditions, particularly Iranian. Its repertoire...

This book explores how the Enlightenment aesthetics of theater as a moral institution influenced cultural politics and operatic developments in Vienna between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Moralistic viewpoints were particularly important in eighteenth-century debates about German...

Sentimental Opera is a study of the relationship between opera and two major phenomena of eighteenth-century European culture - the cult of sensibility and the emergence of bourgeois drama. A thorough examination of social and cultural contexts helps to explain the success of operas such as Paisiello's...

This volume offers a cross-section of English-language scholarship on German and Slavonic operatic repertories of the "long nineteenth century," giving particular emphasis to four areas: German opera in the first half of the nineteenth century; the works of Richard Wagner after 1848; Russian...

Building on the strengths of the first edition, the second edition of Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary presents expanded and updated coverage of its topic with an aim to be comprehensive. The authors have conducted exhaustive research to fill in gaps and correct minor...

In this collection, masterful Brazilian guitarist Paolo Bellinati has meticulously transcribed his solo guitar arrangements of ten melodies by his beloved countryman and pioneering bossa nova composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Bellinati particularly labored over his arrangements of Jobim's instrumental...

The study of opera in the second half of the eighteenth century has flourished during the last several decades, and our knowledge of the operas written during that period and of their aesthetic, social, and political context has vastly increased. This volume explores opera and operatic life of the...

Nineteenth-century French grand operawas a musical and cultural phenomenon with an important and widespread transnational presence in Europe. Primary attention in the major studies of the genre has so far been on the Parisian context for which the majority of the works were originally written. In...

Since its beginnings, opera has depended on recognition as a central aspect of both plot and theme. Though a standard feature of opera, recognition--a moment of new awareness that brings about a crucial reversal in the action--has been largely neglected in opera studies. In Recognition in Mozart's...

This book and accompanying audio present the most popular themes from the classical orchestral repertoire adapted for guitar. Historical background is provided for each piece, as well as warm-ups for both hands. The selections include works by Vivaldi, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Bizet,...