What is tragedy? This work argues that it is, at once, art and science -- an absorbing art and precisely observed empirical inquiry into human psychology, whose subject matter is the dilemma of manhood under democracy. The author expands discussion…
Le nozze di Figaro (1786) was Mozart’s first mature opera buffa. It was also the first of his three major collaborations with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Unlike Don Giovanni (1787) and Così fan tutte (1790), Figaro has few obvious problem…
EThe Broadway Musical Quiz BookE includes nearly 80 quizzes on every aspect of the Broadway musical including sections devoted to the careers of major Broadway stars songwriters directors and producers ranging from Ethel Merman to Stephen Sondheim.…
Musical theatre students and performers are frequently asked to learn musical material in a short space of time; sight-read pieces in auditions; collaborate with accompanists; and communicate musically with peers, directors, music directors and chor…
Chaos and Dancing Star discusses the anarchist, revolutionary, feminist and nationalist influences on Wagner, the revolutionary who turned the world of opera upside down. The books and articles that directly influenced him are examined in detail, in…
Avenue Q is the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. He soon discovers that the only neighbourhood in his price range is "Avenue Q"; still, the neighbours seem nice. There…
John Brecknock is an opera tenor famed for his miraculous breath control and beautiful, glossy voice. Scaling the High C's is an intimate look at the life of this opera star and his rise from a working-class English family to international fame. The…
Responding to the ever-increasing popularity and international performances of operas by the Czech composer Leo? Janacek, this volume, the first in the Janacek Opera Libretti Series, is the full translation of The Cunning Little Vixen in English alo…
In contrast to most books on Richard Wagner, this biography focuses primarily on Wagner as an important figure in the development of the theatre. While his contribution to music history has been exhaustively documented and analyzed, his theatrical v…
Elektra was the fourth of fifteen operas by Strauss and opened his successful partnership with the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is one of the most important operas of the early twentieth century and it solidified Strauss's status as the lead…
Die Figur des Odysseus war bei den Literaten des italienischen 17. Jahrhunderts sehr unbeliebt. Sie galt als zu ambivalent, um Protagonist eines literarischen Werkes zu sein. Trotzdem entstanden zur gleichen Zeit allein in Venedig nicht weniger als…
No full-length study has ever been written on Il trovatore, in his day Verdi's most successful stage work. This book by one of the world's great Verdi authorities fills that gap, providing a comprehensive look at the opera, from its genesis and stru…
Setting opera within a variety of contexts - social, aesthetic, historical - Lindenberger illuminates a form that has persisted in recognizable shape for over four centuries. The study examines the social entanglements of opera, for example the rela…
New in Paperback! This book supplies a soprano with nearly everything she may need to perform the operatic arias discussed. The 28 arias included are chosen from among those that are more popular and most widely studied and performed. There are desc…
‘A sigh in dancing pumps’ was Heine’s view of Bellini. His physical beauty, boundless success and untimely death at the age of thirty-three combined to give Bellini instant mythical status. But both the facts and the fantasies were…
In West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical, Wells presents a major scholarly study of the famous American musical West Side Story, viewing the work from cultural, historical, and musical perspectives. From the "mambo craze" of…
This reprint is of the first English paperback edition of Richard Wagner's autobiography. This is a primary document of enormous importance for all Wagner enthusiasts, being virtually the sole source of information of the composer's childhood and yo…
Hours of lost sleep with a tune running around one's head-and that voice. Whose is it, and from which Broadway production? Debates over a performer's repertoire devolving into acid arguments, blows traded, friendships torn asunder. Must the maddenin…
Gestures of Music Theater: The Performativity of Song and Dance offers new cutting edge essays focusing on Song and Dance as performative gestures that not only entertain but also act on audiences and performers. The chapters range across musical th…
The Teatro Solis in Montevideo, Uruguay-established in 1856 and still operating-is the oldest theater in the Americas. Solis audiences thrilled to the lyricism of many of the great singers of the 19th Century, among them Adelina Patti, Romilda Panta…
Opera performances are often radically inventive. Composers' revisions, singers' improvisations, and stage directors' re-imaginings continually challenge our visions of canonical works. But do they go far enough? This elegantly written, beautifully…
The 1920s represented a turning point in the history of the Broadway musical, breaking with the vaudeville traditions of the early twentieth century to anticipate the more complex, sophisticated musicals of today. Composers Jerome Kern, George Gersh…
Few musicals have had the impact of Lerner and Loewe's timeless classic "My Fair Lady." Sitting in the middle of an era dominated by such seminal figures as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, and Leonard Bernstein, "My Fair Lady" not only enjoy…
A detailed study of the earliest opera in the modern repertoire.
Known worldwide as a composer of symphonies and chamber music, Czech composer Antonin Dvorak declared toward the end of his life that his main love was writing operas. Written in 1900 at the height of Dvorak's creative powers, his fairy tale opera R…
An examination of the history, creators and vital components of musicals. The guide traces the musical's evolution through the eras of minstrels, vaudeville, burlesque, revue and comic opera. It covers the lives and techniques of Jerome Kern, Rogers…
In this incandescent autobiographical collage, lyricist, playwright and performer Betty Comden takes an exuberant and rueful look back on a lifetime of celebrated triumphs and private sorrow. With her lifelong collaborator Adolph Green, she has achi…
Experiencing Broadway Music: A Listener's Companion explores approximately the last century of American musical theater, beginning with the early-twentieth-century shift from European influenced operettas and bawdy variety shows to sophisticated wor…
This book offers the first full historical treatment of a music theatre that was once at the centre of London's West End. From the late Victorian period to the early 1920s, musical comedy was the single most popular form of 'legitimate' theatre ente…
In these pages, Rent offers what most theater books can't: a chance to step behind the curtain and feel the electricity of a stage phenomenon as it unfolds. Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generation, reflecting it onstage through the emotio…
Caritas relates the 'true', yet largely undocumented story of Christine Carpenter, a 14th-century anchoress who moves towards insanity as her desire for a divine revelation continues to be unfulfilled after a period of three years locked in her cell…
The operatic festival Richard Wagner founded in 1876 is the oldest and most famous in the world. It is also the most controversial, for it became the cultural showcase of the Third Reich. In this prize-winning and generously-illustrated book - the f…
Mozart's Don Giovanni is an operatic masterpiece full of iconic and mythical tensions that still resonate today. The work redefines the terms of power, seduction, and morality, and the resulting conflict between the aesthetic and the ethical is deep…
There is often a dichotomy between the academic approach to singing that voice students learn in the studio and what professional singers do on the operatic and concert stage. Great singers at the top of the performing profession achieve their place…
This reference provides a detailed overview of the work of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who for over fifty years have collaborated on skits, musicals, revues, and films. The book begins with a biography and a chronology, which serve as a summary o…
The lyricist/librettist of The Fantasticks, the longest running show in the history of the American theater, takes on a new role as your guide through the magical world of the stage musical.
Opera is a visceral, emotional experience. No prior knowledge is needed to enjoy a soaring aria, or to be moved to laughter and to tears by popular operas like Carmen and La Boheme. But to fully appreciate this centuries-old art form, one must know…
Musical / 3m, 5f (Doubling) / Unit Set The People vs. Mona revolves around Mona Mae Katt, who is accused of murdering her husband on their wedding night. The resulting trial brings out the worst and the funniest of the citizens in the tiny town of T…
A compendium of Richard Wagner's prose works. Selected and arranged, and with an introduction by Albert Goldman and Evert Sprinchorn
Truly powerful vocal performance in musical theater is more than just the sum of good vocal tone and correct notes. As experienced teacher, director, and performer Mark Ross Clark lays out in The Broadway Song, powerful performance communicates the…
Michael Ewans explores how classical Greek tragedy and epic poetry have been appropriated in opera, through eight selected case studies. These range from Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, drawn from Homer's Odyssey, to Mark-Antony Turnage'…
The author of numerous books about Broadway takes readers on a stunning tour of the 1960s, the "Golden Age" of musicals, from Cabaret to Fiddler on the Roof. Reprint.
Musical theater is a dynamic, collaborative art form, which encompasses music, theater, dance, and the visual arts. Traditionally associated with adult performers, musicals also have roles designated specifically for children. How then does involvem…
Professor Kimbell's classic study illuminates the first fifteen years of Verdi's composing career.
His best-known song is "Mack the Knife," with words by Bertolt Brecht, from The Threepenny Opera, first performed in Weimar Berlin in 1928. Five years later, Kurt Weill fled the Nazis to come to America, where he soon emerged as one of the most admi…
The "Golden Age" of opera-going in Russia, from the 1840s through the 1880s, coincided with the flourishing of Russian prose realism. During this period, opera and literature exerted a reciprocal influence on one another, each adopting and providing…
This volume of eleven essays, compiled as a tribute to Winton Dean on his seventieth birthday, focuses on that area which has absorbed Winton Dean's interest throughout his distinguished career: opera and other theatre music. The first half of the b…
Opera: The Basics offers an excellent introduction to four centuries of opera. Its easy to follow sections explore topics including:the origins of operabasic terminologythe history of major opera genres including: serious opera, comic opera, semi-se…
