A concise history of opera / Leslie Orrey.

Author/creator Orrey, Leslie
Format Book
Publication InfoNew York : Charles Scribner's Sons, ©1972.
Description252 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 22 cm
Subjects
Opera.

Contents Preface -- The beginnings of opera in Italy -- Monteverdi. Opera in Seventeenth-century Rome and Venice -- Opera in France from Lully to the Revolution -- Opera in England from Purcell to Arne -- Opera Seria. The court opera -- Comic opera in the eighteenth century -- Mozart -- Post-Revolution opera in France, Italy, and Gemany -- Late nineteenth-century opera in Italy and France -- Wagner and music drama -- Opera in England, Spain, Sweden and Eastern Europe. Nationalism -- Opera in the New World -- Operetta, musical comedy, and the musical -- Opera in the twentieth century.
Abstract 'One of the most magnificent and expensive diversions the wit of man can invent,' wrote the diarist John Evelyn after his visit to the opera in Venice in 1645--just eight years after the world's first commercial opera house had opened in that city. Today few people would wholly dissent from Evelyn's view of opera. Its masterpieces rank among the supreme achievements of both music and drama. Yet a fine operatic performance also generates an indefinable aura, compounded of theatrical excitement, extravagance and a sense of occasion that no other art can quite command. The author treats opera as a branch of the theatre, whose essential features are dramatic confrontation and dialogue, intensified by music on the stage and in the orchestra. In his lavishly illustrated text he surveys not only musical evolution, but changing theatrical conditions, theatre architecture and the increasing influence of the producer. Though his story is inevitably dominated by Italy, Germany, and Austria, the author traces in detail the important developments in France, England, Russia and other continental nations and devotes a chapter to the Americas. Operetta, musical comedy and the musical are also given their place. In his evaluation of the twentieth century, he shows how opera's horizons have been widened by new techniques of composition, new theatrical concepts, modern psychology and advances in acoustical engineering--opera, he concludes, remains as vital an art form today as it has ever been.
General note254 illustrations, 32 in color.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (page 244) and index.
LCCN 73005192
ISBN0684135698
ISBN0684135760 (pbk.)
Stock number$7.95

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML1700 .O77 1972B ✔ Available Place Hold