a history in documents Weiss, Piero 1928-2011 compiler text nyu New York Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 monographic eng

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xii, 338 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. This work collates over 100 primary-source documents for students of the history of opera. The varied selections - which include letters, excerpts of journals, bits of libretti, and contemporary criticism - provide eye-witness commentary on the world of opera from its late-Renaissance infancy through modern times. Each selection is introduced by an extensive headnote that both explains the document's context and positions it in the book's overall narrative. The Medici wedding festivities of 1589 (de'Rossi) -- Pietro Bardi on the birth of opera -- L'euridice, the second opera (Buonarroti, Rinuccini, Peri, Caccini) -- Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di anima, et di corpo (Guidotti, Cavalieri) -- Monteverdi criticizes a libretto -- Sant'Alessio at the Barberini Palace, Rome (Rospigliosi, Bouchard) -- Opera comes to Venice and goes public (Ivanovich) -- Lully is granted a monopoly on opera in French (Colbert, Lully) -- The Grand siáecle absorbs the Tragâedie en musique (Perrault, La Fontaine, Boileau) -- Saint-âEvremond's views on opera -- The first English operas (Dryden) -- Handel's Rinaldo at the Haymarket Theatre (Hill, G. Rossi, Addison, Steele) -- Pier Jacopo Martello on opera (1715) -- The Prâesident de Brosses in Italy (1739) -- Metastasio on setting dramatic recitative to music -- From Rousseau's Confessions -- The war of the buffoons (d'Holbach) -- Interlude: a traveling company (G. Gozzi) -- Operatic reform in Vienna: Gluck and Calzabigi -- Gluck in Paris (Meister) -- Mozart at work on Die Entfèuhrung Aus Dem Serail -- Grâetry's Richard coeur-de-lion (Meister, Grâetry) -- The making of Le nozze di figaro (L. and W.A. Mozart, Da Ponte) -- Kierkegaard's Don Giovanni -- Fidelio in 1806 (Rockel) -- Berlioz's Estimate of Spontini -- E.T.A. Hoffmann on "music drama that springs from the heart" -- The first performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia (Righetti-Giorgi) -- Der Freischèutz: a German triumph (M.M. von Weber) -- Parisian grand opera: Auber's La Muette de Portici as seen by Wagner -- Interlude: Madame pasta (Hunt) -- Verdi's own story of how Nabucco was composed -- Verdi's operatic style analyzed by a contemporary (Basevi) -- Wagner on the evolution of his style -- Wagner's theory of drama -- Divergent reactions to Boris Godunov (Laroche, Stasov) -- Tchaikovsky on Eugene Onegin -- Nietzsche vs. Wagner -- Verdi's Otello (Boito, Verdi, Morelli) -- Interlude: Verdi and Wagner in Vienna (J. Sulzer) -- Verismo (Verga) -- Four men at work on La bohâeme (Illica, Puccini, Ricordi, Giacosa) -- Pellâeas et Mâelisande (Mauclair, journalist, Debussy) -- Strauss and Hofmannsthal work on Der Rosenkavalier -- Duke Bluebeard's castle (Ballâasz) -- Busoni and the reinstatement of disbelief -- In defense of Kâat'a Kabanovâa (Stuart) -- Alban Berg on Wozzeck -- Brecht on "epic opera" -- Shostakovich and the Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Debacle (Shostakovich, Pravda) -- Interlude: an Italian claque (Montale) -- Peter Grimes in postwar London (Edm. Wilson) -- Stravinsky, Auden, and The rake's progress -- A first reaction to Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmâelites (Mila) -- Einstein on the beach by Philip Glass (Page) -- John Adams on Nixon in China. [compiled by] Piero Weiss. Includes index. Opera Sources Ópera Fuentes ML 1700 O61 2002 782.1 0195116372 9780195116373 2001032179 http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0612/2001032179-t.html http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0612/2001032179-d.html http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0725/2001032179-b.html http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0612/2001032179-t.html http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0612/2001032179-d.html http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0725/2001032179-b.html DLC 010423 20250527104528.0 74751 eng