Unlocking potential with the best learning and research solutions

The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera

Part of Cambridge Companions to Music

Editor: Mervyn Cooke, University of Nottingham

Nigel Simeone, Arnold Whittall, John Deathridge, Virgilio Bernardoni, Caroline Harvey, Philip Weller, Alan Street, Christopher Walton, Nigel Simeone, Guido Heldt, Rachel Beckles Willson, Marina Frolova-Walker, Elise K. Kirk, Christopher Mark, Robert Adlington, Arved Ashby, Mervyn Cooke, Stephen Banfield, Nicholas Payne, Tom Sutcliffe

View all contributors

Date Published: December 2005
availability: Available
format: Hardback
isbn: 9780521780094

Rate & review

Hardback

Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
Paperback, eBook

Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available for inspection. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an inspection copy. To register your interest please contact [email protected] providing details of the course you are teaching.

Description

Contents

Resources

Courses

About the Authors

This Companion celebrates the extraordinary riches of the twentieth-century operatic repertoire in a collection of specially commissioned essays written by a distinguished team of academics, critics and practitioners. Beginning with a discussion of the century's vital inheritance from late-romantic operatic traditions in Germany and Italy, the text embraces fresh investigations into various aspects of the genre in the modern age, with a comprehensive coverage of the work of individual composers from Debussy and Schoenberg to John Adams and Harrison Birtwistle. Traditional stylistic categorizations (including symbolism, expressionism, neo-classicism and minimalism) are reassessed from new critical perspectives, and the distinctive operatic traditions of Continental and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and United States are subjected to fresh scrutiny. The volume includes essays devoted to avant-garde music theatre, operettas and musicals, filmed opera, and ends with a discussion of the position of the genre in today's cultural marketplace.
- Provides comprehensive coverage of an exceptionally rich topic, rarely tackled so thoroughly in a single volume
- Includes vivid photographic illustrations from modern opera productions
- Contributors include a mix of academics, critics and practitioners
Read more
Reviews & endorsements
'… gives readers a wealth of insight into the thriving world of opera in the last century.' Contemporary Review

Customer reviews

Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review

Log in to review

Review was not posted due to profanity
×

, create a review

(If you're not , sign out)

Please enter the right captcha value

Please enter a star rating.

Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

How do you rate this item?

Reviews must contain at least 12 words about the product.

×

Product details
- Date Published: December 2005
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780521780094
- length: 428 pages
- dimensions: 254 x 178 x 24 mm
- weight: 0.96kg
- contains: 11 b/w illus.
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
A chronology of twentieth-century opera Nigel Simeone
Part I. Legacies:
1. Opera in transition Arnold Whittall
2. Wagner and beyond John Deathridge
3. Puccini and the Italian tradition Virgilio Bernardoni
Part II. Trends:
4. Words and actions Caroline Harvey
5. Symbolist opera: trials, triumphs, tributaries Philip Weller
6. Expression and construction: the stage works of Schoenberg and Berg Alan Street
7. Neo-classical opera Christopher Walton
Part III. Topographies:
8. France and the Mediterranean Nigel Simeone
9. Austria and Germany, 1918–-1960 Guido Heldt
10. Eastern Europe Rachel Beckles Willson
11. Russian opera: between modernism and romanticism Marina Frolova-Walker
12. American opera: innovation and tradition Elise K. Kirk
13. Opera in England: taking the plunge Christopher Mark
Part IV. Directions:
14. Music theatre since the 1960s Robert Adlington
15. Minimalist opera Arved Ashby
16. Opera and film Mervyn Cooke
17. Popular musical theatre (and film) Stephen Banfield
18. Opera in the marketplace Nicholas Payne
19. Technology and interpretation: aspects of 'modernism' Tom Sutcliffe.
Look Inside
Editor
Mervyn Cooke, University of Nottingham
Mervyn Cooke is Professor of Music at the University of Nottingham. His books include studies of Britten's Billy Budd and War Requiem (Cambridge University Press), Britten and the Far East, Jazz, and The Chronicle of Jazz; he has also edited The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten and (with David Horn) The Cambridge Companion to Jazz. He is currently writing a history of film music for Cambridge University Press, and is a co-editor of the ongoing and critically acclaimed edition of Britten's correspondence published by Faber. He is also active as a pianist and composer, his compositions having been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio France, and performed at London's South Bank and St John's Smith Square.
Contributors
Nigel Simeone, Arnold Whittall, John Deathridge, Virgilio Bernardoni, Caroline Harvey, Philip Weller, Alan Street, Christopher Walton, Nigel Simeone, Guido Heldt, Rachel Beckles Willson, Marina Frolova-Walker, Elise K. Kirk, Christopher Mark, Robert Adlington, Arved Ashby, Mervyn Cooke, Stephen Banfield, Nicholas Payne, Tom Sutcliffe