Leoncavallo: Life and Works is the first fully documented biography of the beloved and popular composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919), whose credits include Pagliacci and the operatic works Chatterton, Der Roland von Berlin, Zazà, Maïa, Zingari, La bohème, and the incomplete trilogy Crepusculum. Author Konrad Dryden has amassed material from hundreds of unpublished letters and photographs, creating the most complete portrait of the composer to date. This book examines various facets of Leoncavallo's history: from his youth as the son of the Naples' judge who presided over the murder trial on which Pagliacci was based to his studies with the poet Giosuè Carducci, and from his sojourn in France as a café-chantant pianist to his appointment in Egypt as music instructor to the Khedive. Careful documentation and plot synopses of Leoncavallo's numerous works are provided and his two U.S. tours are discussed. The biography also sheds new light on Leoncavallo's colleagues and contemporaries, including composers Mahler, Massenet, Puccini, Verdi, and Mascagni; singers Caruso, Ruffo, Tetrazzini, and Sanderson; and historical personalities like Toscanini, Hugo, Carducci, Wilhelm II, and Queen Victoria. A foreword by Plácido Domingo, a photo spread featuring more than 25 photos, and an appendix offering the complete list of the composer's opus add to the bibliography and index, making this the ultimate reference on this important figure in music and opera history.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
...the first substantial study of the composer in English...[the author] can be congratulated in assembling so much new information. (Bbc Music Magazine, August 2007 )
This is ideal for anyone looking for in-depth research material on this little-known composer. Highly recommended. (Choice, October 2007, Vol. 45, No. 2 )
Best known as the composer of Pagliacci , Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) created many other operatic works, including Chatterton , Der Roland von Berlin , and La bohème. Based on extensive archival research conducted by the author, this critical biography attempts to untangle and organize the facts of Leoncavallo's life while offering a relatively complete analysis of his works. Dryden teaches music at the University of Maryland University College-Europe. (Reference and Research Book News, May 2007 )
Because of Dryden, he [Leoncavallo] has finally been accorded a memorial entirely unlike himself: that is, unassuming, focused, disciplined, and perilously near to perfection. The preface, by no less a performer than Plácido Domingo, merely confirms the whole project's quality. It is impossible to imagine any subsequent book on leoncavallo doing more than adding a handful of grace notes, and perhaps the very occasional cadenza, to Dryden's quietly heroic art. (The New Criterion, June 2008 )
This is ideal for anyone looking for in-depth research material on this little-known composer. Highly recommended. (Choice, October 2007, Vol. 45, No. 2 )
Best known as the composer of Pagliacci , Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) created many other operatic works, including Chatterton , Der Roland von Berlin , and La bohème. Based on extensive archival research conducted by the author, this critical biography attempts to untangle and organize the facts of Leoncavallo's life while offering a relatively complete analysis of his works. Dryden teaches music at the University of Maryland University College-Europe. (Reference and Research Book News, May 2007 )
Because of Dryden, he [Leoncavallo] has finally been accorded a memorial entirely unlike himself: that is, unassuming, focused, disciplined, and perilously near to perfection. The preface, by no less a performer than Plácido Domingo, merely confirms the whole project's quality. It is impossible to imagine any subsequent book on leoncavallo doing more than adding a handful of grace notes, and perhaps the very occasional cadenza, to Dryden's quietly heroic art. (The New Criterion, June 2008 )
About the Author
Dr. Konrad Dryden is professor of music and German at the University of Maryland-Europe and a frequent lecturer on verismo.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Job,
This review is from: Leoncavallo: Life and Works (Hardcover)
Grateful to professor Dryden for enabling readers to learn more of the verismo era through his superbly reasearched biographies of Leoncavallo, Zandonai and Franco Alfano. Let's hope that these wonderful monographs will initiate a renewal of some of the operas mentioned.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Leoncavallo,
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This review is from: Leoncavallo: Life and Works (Paperback)
OK for a first ever bio of an interesting composer. The main things that are missing are musical samples and lists and reviews of recordings. The language is a little strained, sometimes you have to go back to be sure you know what the author is talking about. Generally reads too much like a doctoral thesis. The author should read the composer bios written by Cairns, Budden and others.
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