Composers on the Stage – serie

Presenting a fresh approach to Mozart's achievements as a composer for the stage, John A. Rice outlines the composer's place in the operatic culture of his time. The book tells the story of how Mozart's operas came into existence, following the processes that Mozart went through as he brought his operas from commission to performance. Chapters trace the fascinating series of interactions that took place between Mozart and librettists, singers, stage designers, orchestras, and audiences. In linking the operas by topic, Rice emphasizes what Mozart's operas have in common, regardless of when he wrote them and the genres to which they belong. Overall, the book demonstrates how Mozart's entire operatic oeuvre is the product of a single extraordinary mind and a single pan-European operatic culture.

Presenting a fresh approach to Mozart's achievements as a composer for the stage, John A. Rice outlines the composer's place in the operatic culture of his time. The book tells the story of how Mozart's operas came into existence, following the processes that Mozart went through as he brought his operas from commission to performance. Chapters trace the fascinating series of interactions that took place between Mozart and librettists, singers, stage designers, orchestras, and audiences. In linking the operas by topic, Rice emphasizes what Mozart's operas have in common, regardless of when he wrote them and the genres to which they belong. Overall, the book demonstrates how Mozart's entire operatic oeuvre is the product of a single extraordinary mind and a single pan-European operatic culture.

The Stage Works of Philip Glass is the first publication to exclusively examine Glass's stage works from 1976 to the present day. Glass, who is regularly acclaimed as the most popular living classical composer, created stage works that have had a mesmerizing effect on younger generations. Robert Waters analyses Glass and his music for the theatre in the context of other composers interested in so-called minimalist features. His discussion includes three introductory chapters that address the validity versus invalidity of terms such as minimalism, post-minimalism, postmodernism, and neo-Romanticism, together with a brief overview of Glass's life and works. Waters examines the different types of theatre responsible for Glass's impact, including Robert Wilson's Theater of Images. He sheds light on Glass's philosophy regarding staging, text, and other theatrical components, which includes a defiance of conventional narrative, visual and aural dissociation as a theatrical technique, and deconstructionist concepts.