Full Description
The past four decades have seen an explosion in research regarding seventeenth-century opera. In addition to investigations of extant scores and librettos, scholars have dealt with the associated areas of dance and scenery, as well as newer disciplines such as studies of patronage, gender, and semiotics. While most of the essays in the volume pertain to Italian opera, others concern opera production in France, England, Spain and the Germanic countries.
Contents
Contents: Introduction; Part I 17th-Century Opera: The Early Years: Singing Orfeo: on the performers of Monteverdi's first opera, Tim Carter; Training a singer for Musica Recitativa in early 17th-century Italy: the case of Baldassare, John Walter Hill; Re-voicing Arianna (and laments): two women respond, Suzanne G. Cusick. Part II Monteverdi and Cavalli: Monteverdi's mimetic art: L'incoronazione di Poppea, Ellen Rosand; Tacitus incognito: opera as history in L'incoronazione di Poppea, Wendy Heller; Didone by Cavalli and Busenello: from the sources to modern productions, Dinko Fabris; Censoring Eliogabalo in 17th-century Venice, Mauro Calcagno. Part III Italian Opera During the Second Half of the 17th Century: La sirena antica dell'Adriatico: Caterina Porri, a 17th-century Roman prima donna on the stages of Venice, Bologna and Pavia, Beth L. Glixon; Dances from the 'four corners of the Earth': exoticism in 17th-century Venetian opera, Irene Alm; On the road with the 'suitcase aria': the transmission of borrowed arias in late 17th-century Italian opera revivals, Jennifer Williams Brown. Part IV Opera Outside Italy: Why the first opera given in Paris wasn't Roman, Margaret Murata; The articulation of Lully's dramatic dialogue, Lois Rosow; Recovering the Lullian divertissement, Rebecca Harris-Warrick; Opera and the Spanish political agenda, Louise K. Stein; What did Handel learn from Steffani's operas?, Colin Timms; Performance and political allegory in Restoration England: what to interpret and when, Andrew R. Walkling; The politics of opera in late 17th-century London, Robert D. Hume; Name Index.
