Situating Opera by
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 relation of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio and Verdi's Il trovatore to its initial and later audiences. It shows how modernist opera rethought the nature of theatricality and often challenged its viewers by means of both musical and theatrical shock effects. Using recent experiments in neuroscience, the book demonstrates how different operatic forms developed at different periods to create new ways of exciting a public. Lindenberger considers selected moments of operatic history from Monteverdi's Orfeo to the present to study how the form has communicated with its diverse audiences. Of interest to scholars and operagoers alike, this book advocates and exemplifies opera studies as an active, emerging area of interdisciplinary study.
Opera and Modern Culture by
In this enlightening and entertaining book, one of the most original and sophisticated musicologists writing today turns his attention to music's most dramatic genre. Extending his ongoing project of clarifying music's various roles in Western society, Kramer brings to opera his distinctive and pioneering blend of historical concreteness and theoretical awareness. Opera is legendary for going to extremes, a tendency that has earned it a reputation for unreality. Opera and Modern Culture shows the reverse to be true. Kramer argues that for the past two centuries the preoccupation of a group of famous operas with the limits of supremacy and debasement helped to define a normality that seems the very opposite of the operatic. Exemplified in a series of beloved examples, a certain idea of opera--a fiction of opera--has contributed in key ways to the modern era's characterizations of desire, identity, and social order. Opera and Modern Culture exposes this process at work in operas by Richard Wagner, who put modernity on the agenda in ways no one after him could ignore, and by the young Richard Strauss. The book continues the initiative of much recent writing in treating opera as a multimedia rather than a primarily musical form. From Lohengrin and The Ring of the Niebelung to Salome and Elektra, it traces the rich interplay of operatic visions and voices and their contexts in the birth pangs of modern life.
The Prima Donna and Opera, 1815-1930 by
This book is concerned not so much with the 'prima donna' as with prime donne: a group of working artists (sometimes famous but more often relatively unknown and now long forgotten) and the circumstances of their professional lives. It attempts to locate these singers within a broader history, including not only the specificities of operatic stage practice but the life beyond the opera house - the social, cultural and political framing that shaped individual experience, artistic endeavour and audience reception. Rutherford addresses questions such as the multiple discourses on the image of the singer and their impact on the changing profile of the professional artist from figlia dell'arte at the beginning of the era to middle-class woman at the end; the aspect of the 'stage mother' and patrona≥ issues of vocal training and tuition; professional life in the operatic market-place; and performance (both vocal and dramatic) conventions and practices.
Musical Theatre Song by
Arming the present generation of musical theatre performers with the wide-ranging skill-set required for success in the competitive environment of musical theatre is more vital than ever. The musical theatre performer of today must not only deliver his/her art winningly, but must do so while being thoroughly skilled in the diverse varieties of vocal and performance styles in use today. He or she must choose song material wisely, and deftly prepare it, to emphasise his or her individuality. Moreover, the musical theatre performer must interpret lyrical text with prowess (acting the song) and understand the art of presentation. On top of all of this, today's musical theatre performers must appreciate, and immerse themselves in, the history of the musical theatre. In this new book, Broadway and West End vocal and audition coach Stephen Purdy maps out the requirements of today's complex musical theatre scene, suggesting sensible strategies for success in song work for those looking to succeed in the industry. He draws from his many years of experience as a musical director and coach at the highest levels, and as an accomplished college professor in New York City and abroad.
Showtime: a History of the Broadway Musical Theater by
Showtime brings the history of Broadway musicals to life in a narrative as engaging as the subject itself. Beginning with the scandalous Astor Place Opera House riot of 1849, Larry Stempel traces the growth of musicals from minstrel shows and burlesques, through the golden age of Show Boat and Oklahoma!, to such groundbreaking works as Company and Rent. Stempel describes the Broadway stage with vivid accounts of the performers drawn to it, and detailed portraits of the creators who wrote the music, lyrics, and stories for its shows, both beloved and less well known. But Stempel travels outside the theater doors as well, to illuminate the wider world of musical theater as a living genre shaped by the forces of American history and culture. He reveals not only how musicals entertain their audiences but also how they serve as barometers of social concerns and bearers of cultural values. Showtime is the culmination of decades of painstaking research on a genre whose forms have changed over the course of two centuries. In covering the expansive subject before him, Stempel combines original research--including a kaleidoscope of primary sources and archival holdings--with deft and insightful analysis. The result is nothing short of the most comprehensive, authoritative history of the Broadway musical yet published.
Gestures of Music Theater: the Performativity of Song and Dance by
Gestures of Music Theatre: 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 theatre, opera, theatre and other artisticpractices, from Glee to Gardzienice, Beckett to Disney, Broadway to Turner-Prize-winning sound installation. The chapters draw together these diverse examples of vocality and physicality by exploring their affect rather than through considering them as texts.The book's contributors derive methodologies from many disciplines. Resisting discrete discipline-based enquiry, they share methodologies and performance repertoires with discipline-based scholarship from theatre studies, musicology and cultural studies, amongst other approaches. Together, they viewthese as neighboring voices whose dialogue enriches the study of contemporary music theatre.
Writing Musical Theater by
This guide to the modern musical covers the entire process of creating a show, from finding and working out the initial idea, through to the ways in which writers can market a finished show and get it produced. For the interested theatregoer and writers, it is written in a lively and user-friendly style and illustrated with numerous examples.
Choral Music by
Choral Music Research and Information is a bibliographic research guide of work in the field. Sections include choral music for children and youth choirs, choral music for adult choirs, choral music with dance, choral settings, and multicultural music.
The Cambridge Companion to Choral Music by
Choral music is now undoubtedly the foremost genre of participatory music making, with more people singing in choirs than ever before. Written by a team of leading international practitioners and scholars, this Companion addresses the history of choral music, its emergence and growth worldwide and its professional practice. The volume sets out a historical survey of the genre and follows with a kaleidoscopic bird's eye view of choral music from all over the world. Chapters vividly portray the emergence and growth of choral music from its Quranic antecedents in West and Central Asia to the baroque churches of Latin America, representing its global diversity. Uniquely, the book includes a pedagogical section where several leading choral musicians write about the voice and the inner workings of a choir and give their professional insights into choral practice. This Companion will appeal to choral scholars, directors and performers alike.
Choral Music in the Twentieth Century by
(Amadeus). Nick Strimple's all-encompassing survey ranges from 19th-century masters, such as Elgar, to contemporary composers, such as Tan Dun and Paul McCartney. Repertory of every style and level of complexity is critically surveyed and described. This book is an essential resource for choral conductors and a valuable guide for choral singers and other music lovers.
Building Choral Excellence by
Designed for both the practicing choral director and the choral methods student, this is a compact and comprehensive overview of the many teaching methods, strategies, materials, and assessments available for choral sight-singing instruction. Sight-singing is an important, if sometimesneglected, facet of choral music education that often inspires fear and uncertainty in student and teacher alike. Written in an accessible style, this book takes the mystery out of teaching music reading. Topics covered include the history of sight-singing pedagogy and research, prominent methodsand materials, and practical strategies for teaching and assessment. This is the only book to provide such a wealth of information under one cover and will become an essential part of every choral conductor's library.
Teaching Choral Music by
Written in a lively and engaging style, this comprehensive, practical, and authoritative guide to teaching choral music offers a sequential, organized plan of approach that explores the foundation principles and methods of the discipline, covers the nuts and bolts of the profession, and helps users learn to structure administration and organization responsibilities to promote long, complete, and satisfying careers. Offers practical guidance and explains complex concepts about vocal and choral technique in a simple and easy-to-understand language. Covers theYgistory of choral music in Europe and America, and delineates aspecific philosophy of teachingchoral music with a particular emphasis on its justification in the secondary school curriculum. Now recommends long- and short-term Study Projects for each chapter, and comes with new and expanded appendices that include: Suppliers of Choral Music, Materials and Equipment; Choral Literature for Mid-Level Grades; Multicultural Choral Music; Sight Reading Methods; plus useful Web Sites. Makes an ideal reference.
Singing and Communicating in English by 
A Handbook of Diction for Singers by 
