Stilar & genrer

Among the features of this guide to La Cenerentola, Philip Gossett throws new light on the remarkable story of the operas composition, while Colin Graham, ENO producer, argues that it is the most sympathetic of all Rossinis comic masterpieces, and...

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Aida is, for most of us, the quintessence of Ancient Egypt but it is certainly not just for archaeologists. Michael Rose points out that it is really about patriotism - an issue of burning importance to Verdi and his contemporaries. Music critic W...

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A lyric comedy unlike any other, wrote Verdi about his last opera. That the last work of a composer who was almost notorious for his preference for tragic and gloomy subjects should be a brilliant human comedy was and remains one of the wonders of...

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Rigoletto was first produced at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, in 1851, and is generally seen as marking the beginning of Giuseppe Verdis extraordinary middle period. It was followed in quick succession by Il trovatore and La traviata, and even aft...

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In this guide to Verdis popular opera, Marcello Conati of the Institute for Verdi Studies points out that, although audiences have always adored it, critics are only now coming to see that it represents a step forward, not back, from the revolutio...

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Verdis War and Peace, writes Peter Conrad of this epic opera composed in 1862. It encompasses the extremes of a religious and secular existence the worlds of the lovers pursued by an uncompromising fate and of the people in the scenes at the inn a...

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Madama Butterfly is one of the most popular operas of all time, despite its disastrous premiere, after which it was immediately withdrawn and revised. This guide explores how and why the libretto was softened to suit the tastes of European opera-g...

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A Turandot filtered through a modern brain, wrote Puccini, describing his plans to rework the eighteenth-century fable by Carlo Gozzi. According to Mosco Carner, Puccinis last and supreme work is an advanced score which, with an orchestration that...

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Verdis Simon Boccanegra exists in two versions: that of the 1857 original and that of the 1881 revision. The texts of the libretto of both versions are included in this guide, with a number of essays which focus on the differences between the two....

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Rossini is one of the great operatic composers and a major innovator in the field of serious and comic operas. Moise et Pharaon is a score which he revised for Paris ten years after it had been composed for Naples; the result shows the evolution o...

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'See how the drama is turned into laughter,' comment the chorus, as they witness the destruction of a marriage and a friendship. Here Pierluigi Petrobelli shows how the irony woven into the tragedy (which strikes listeners today as so mo...

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Verdi came to Shakespeare through Italian translation and had never seen Macbeth on stage when he wrote his first version of the opera in 1847. Giorgio Melchiori draws a parallel between the conditions in which the playwright and the composer were...

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Monteverdis 1607 version of the legend of Orpheus is arguably the first masterpiece of opera. Composed for the court of Mantua, where Monteverdi was employed, it is very different from his two other surviving operas, which he wrote more than thirt...

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It used to be thought that Verdi miscalculated with this attempt at a grand opera in the French style. This guide demonstrates that Don Carlos was and remains an extraordinary achievement in melding two opposing visions of opera: the spectacular p...

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These Opera Guides are ideal com-panions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. Italian opera expert William Ashbrook asks why this love story attract...

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These Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. Puccinis motto could be: The maximum effect with the simplest means, su...

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La Traviata was Giuseppe Verdis eighteenth opera and shows him at the height of his middle-period powers. Adapted from La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils, it portrays the love between the courtesan Violetta Valery and the young Alfredo G...

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Puccinis La bohme is one of the most beloved and enduring operas of all time. In this guide, William Ashbrook evaluates the operas initial reception, the reasons for its wide appeal and Verdis influence on the composition. Nicholas John discusses ...

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