The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera (Cambridge Companions to Music) [Hardcover]

Anthony R. DelDonna (Editor), Pierpaolo Polzonetti (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0521873584 | ISBN-13: 978-0521873581 | Edition: 1

Reflecting a wide variety of approaches to eighteenth-century opera, this Companion brings together leading international experts in the field to provide a valuable reference source. Viewing opera as a complex and fascinating form of art and social ritual, rather than reducing it simply to music and text analysis, individual essays investigate aspects such as audiences, architecture of the theaters, marketing, acting style, and the politics and strategy of representing class and gender. Overall, the volume provides a synthesis of well established knowledge, reflects recent research on eighteenth-century opera, and stimulates further research. The reader is encouraged to view opera as a cultural phenomenon that can reveal aspects of our culture, both past and present. Eighteenth-century opera is experiencing continuing critical and popular success through innovative and provoking productions world-wide, and this Companion will appeal to opera goers as well as to students and teachers of this key topic.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The divided authorship provides a rich fund of expertise... This Companion has succeeded in its aim to address a wide range of skills and interests. ..The style is always accessible... it is a pleasure to handle. It cannot fail to leave its readers enlightened." --Musical Times

Book Description

Bringing together leading international experts in the field of eighteenth-century opera, this Companion is a definitive reference resource which provides well established knowledge, reflects recent thinking and stimulates further individual research. Key topics covered include the productive process of opera, national styles and genres, acting, ballet and the libretto.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 342 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (July 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521873584
• ISBN-13: 978-0521873581
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,983,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pierpaolo Polzonetti teaches Music History and Great Books seminars at the University of Notre Dame. He studied at the University or Rome "La Sapienza" and received his doctorate in music history at Cornell. He has been awarded grants by American Musicological Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies and has received the Einstein Award of the American Musicological Society for the best article by a younger scholar. He is the author of Italian Opera in the Age of the American Revolution (Cambridge University Press) and Giuseppe Tartini e la musica secondo natura (Libreria Italiana di Musica), as well as the coeditor, with Anthony DelDonna, of the Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera. His articles have appeared in edited volumes and journals, including Opera Quarterly, Eighteenth-Century Music, and Cambridge Opera Journal.