Fabrizio Della Seta – författare

Bellini is the most complete monograph ever published to-date on the life and legacy of the composer from Catania. His achievements, presented in the historical-social context of his time, explore his relationships with educational institutions, the theatrical production system and the literary world, and impresarios, publishers, librettists, and other musicians alike. Each chapter is dedicated to a period of Bellini's life and the cities in which he worked: Catania, Naples, Milan, Venice, London, and Paris.Of Bellini's ten operas, only three are well-loved by the public; the other seven are rarely performed, and thus, are relatively unknown. Bellini provides essential information on these lesser-known works, offering summaries of their synopses as well as discussions of various number of significant scenes and passages therein. Fabrizio Della Seta also explores the relationships between Bellini and the most famous singers of his time, such as Giuditta Pasta and Giovanni Battista Rubini, and the role his contemporaries played in shaping his musical style.Through a close, in-depth exploration of Bellini's operas, chamber music, and sacred and instrumental music, Della Seta positions the composer not only as a creator of memorable melodies, but as a first-rate dramatist whose musical structures were imbued with cultural meaning and historical significance.

Bellini is the most complete monograph ever published to-date on the life and legacy of the composer from Catania. His achievements, presented in the historical-social context of his time, explore his relationships with educational institutions, the theatrical production system and the literary world, and impresarios, publishers, librettists, and other musicians alike. Each chapter is dedicated to a period of Bellini's life and the cities in which he worked: Catania, Naples, Milan, Venice, London, and Paris. Of Bellini's ten operas, only three are well-loved by the public; the other seven are rarely performed, and thus, are relatively unknown. Bellini provides essential information on these lesser-known works, offering summaries of their synopses as well as discussions of various number of significant scenes and passages therein. Fabrizio Della Seta also explores the relationships between Bellini and the most famous singers of his time, such as Giuditta Pasta and Giovanni Battista Rubini, and the role his contemporaries played in shaping his musical style. Through a close, in-depth exploration of Bellini's operas, chamber music, and sacred and instrumental music, Della Seta positions the composer not only as a creator of memorable melodies, but as a first-rate dramatist whose musical structures were imbued with cultural meaning and historical significance.

Bellini is the most complete monograph ever published to-date on the life and legacy of the composer from Catania. His achievements, presented in the historical-social context of his time, explore his relationships with educational institutions, the theatrical production system and the literary world, and impresarios, publishers, librettists, and other musicians alike. Each chapter is dedicated to a period of Bellini's life and the cities in which he worked: Catania, Naples, Milan, Venice, London, and Paris. Of Bellini's ten operas, only three are well-loved by the public; the other seven are rarely performed, and thus, are relatively unknown. Bellini provides essential information on these lesser-known works, offering summaries of their synopses as well as discussions of various number of significant scenes and passages therein. Fabrizio Della Seta also explores the relationships between Bellini and the most famous singers of his time, such as Giuditta Pasta and Giovanni Battista Rubini, and the role his contemporaries played in shaping his musical style. Through a close, in-depth exploration of Bellini's operas, chamber music, and sacred and instrumental music, Della Seta positions the composer not only as a creator of memorable melodies, but as a first-rate dramatist whose musical structures were imbued with cultural meaning and historical significance.

I complain bitterly of the editions of my last operas, made with such little care, and filled with an infinite number of errors. Giuseppe Verdi The University of Chicago Press, in collaboration with Casa Ricordi, has undertaken to publish the first critical edition of the complete works of Giuseppe Verdi. The series, based exclusively on original sources, is the only one to present authentic versions of all of the composer's works; together with his operas, the critical edition presents his songs, his choral music and sacred pieces, and his string quartet and other instrumental works. The Works of Giuseppe Verdi will be an invaluable standard reference work a necessary acquisition for all music libraries and a joy to own for all lovers of opera. The new series of study scores presents an adaptation of each critical edition that provides scholars with an affordable and portable option for exploring Verdi's oeuvre. The study scores have been designed to distinguish editors' marks from Verdi's own notations while remaining clear enough for use in performance.The introduction to each score discusses the work's sources, composition, and performance history, as well as performance practices, instrumentation, and problems of notation. The newest editions of the study scores examine two of Verdi's three-act operas: La traviata and Rigoletto.

Opera often seems to arouse either irrational enthusiasm or visceral dislike. Such madness, as Goethe wrote, is indispensable in all theater, and yet in practice, sentiment and passion must be balanced by sense and reason. Exploring this tension between madness and reason, Not without Madness presents new analytical approaches to thinking about eighteenth- and nineteenth-century opera through the lenses of its historical and cultural contexts.   In these twelve essays, Fabrizio Della Seta explores the concept of opera as a dramatic event and an essential moment in the history of theater. Examining the meaning of opera and the devices that produce and transmit this meaning, he looks at the complex verbal, musical, and scenic mechanisms in parts of La sonnambula, Ernani, Aida, Le nozze di Figaro, Macbeth, and Il trovatore. He argues that approaches to the study of opera must address performance, interpretation, composition, reception, and cultural ramifications. Purely musical analysis does not make sense unless we take into account music’s dramatic function. Containing many essays available for the first time in English, Not without Madness bridges recent divisions in opera studies and will attract musicologists, musicians, and opera lovers alike.

"La traviata" was initially far from a success, Verdi declared its 1853 premiere a "fiasco," and later reworked parts of five pieces in the first two acts, retaining the original setting for the rest. The first performance of the new version in 1854 was a tremendous success, and the opera was quickly taken up by theatres around the world. This critical edition presents the 1854 version as the main score, and also makes available the full score and the original 1853 settings of the revised pieces. For this text Fabrizio della Seta used the composer's autograph and many secondary sources, but also Verdi's previously unknown sketches. These sketches helped corroborate the original readings and illuminate the work's compositional stages. A detailed critical commentary discusses source problems and anbiguities.