Opera Eyewitness Companions

comp os ers • synopses si ng ers • Perform an ce s E YE WITNES S compan ions E Y E W I TNESS compani ons Opera E Y E W I TNE S S companions E YE W I T N ES S compa n ions Opera Discover more at www.dk.com KEY TO SYMBOLS USED IN THIS BOOK Opera genre, number of acts, and duration Date of composition Date and location of first performance Librettist and sources Aria Duet Ensemble     comp os ers • synopses si ng ers • Pe rf orman ce s Opera other eyewitness companions architecture • Art • astronomy backpacking & Hiking • cats • Classical Music dogs • film • French Cheese • French Wine Golf • Guitar • Olive Oil • Photography riding • scuba diving • Trees Wines of the World Alan Riding is an opera devotee who, as European Arts Correspondent for The New York Times, has covered innumerable opera productions in theaters from London to Vienna, Berlin to Milan, Paris to New York. Leslie Dunton-Downer has written librettos for operas produced in Aspen, New York, Paris, Evian, Spoleto (Italy), and Moscow. She has collaborated with leading composers, conductors, singers, and directors from North America, Europe, and Asia. Alan Riding and Leslie Dunton-Downer are coauthors of DK’s Essential Shakespeare Handbook. The composers From Monteverdi to Adams, learn more about the lives of the operatic masters The operas Synopses of more than 160 operas from around the world Opera $25.00 USA $32.00 Canada I SB N 0-7566-2204-2 9 7 8 0 7 5 6 6 2 2 0 4 6 5 2 5 0 0 Opera Alan riding & leslie dunton-downer The performances Discover hundreds of classic and modern opera interpretations through stunning photography section color codes Jacket images Front: Alamy: Chad Ehlers (t), Alamy: Jeff Morgan (br), Alamy/Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library (bcl), Empics/Stuart Ramson/Metropolitan Opera, New York (c), Judith Miller/DK/Gorringes (bcr), Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library (bl). Spine: ArenaPAL: Clive Barda. Back: ArenaPAL: Clive Barda (bl), Corbis: Francis G. Mayer (br), Corbis: L. Clarke (c), Corbis: Robbie Jack (cl), Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library (cr), Rough Guides: Eddie Gerard (t). alan riding  leslie dunton-downer introducing opera monteverdi to mozart Italian Opera germanic opera french opera russian opera Pages 12–47 Pages 48–121 Pages 122–201 Pages 202–259 Pages 260–305 Pages 306–339 czech opera modern opera Pages 340–359 Pages 360–423 The defi nitive visual guide Explore 400 years of music drama, from late-Renaissance Italy to the modern day Printed in China Opera alan riding  leslie dunton-downer ALAN RIDING & LESLIE DUNTON-DOWNER EYEWITNESS COMPANIONS Opera [...]...CONTENTS 42 306 IDOLS OF OPERA RUSSIAN OPERA c.1830–1960 48 10 INTRODUCTION MONTEVERDI TO MOZART c.1600–1800 12 122 INTRODUCING OPERA ITALIAN OPERA c.1800–1925 340 CZECH OPERA c.1860–1940 360 MODERN OPERA c.1900– 14 WHAT IS OPERA? INDEX 22 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 424 431 LIBRETTOS AND LIBRETTISTS 202 28 STAGING OPERA GERMANIC OPERA c.1800–1950 260 34 OPERA HOUSES AND FESTIVALS FRENCH OPERA c.1790–1900 10 I N... ballet But many composers named their operas as they wished Mozart’s Don Giovanni was called a dramma giocoso (“jocose” opera) Verdi often chose melodramma, Wagner varied the description of his operas, and Mussorgsky came up with “national music drama” for Khovanshchina WH AT I S OP E R A ? 17 boasted 17 opera houses, and the Italian love for opera was sealed Opera was yet another fruit of the The... role of judge and jury is played by the public, some newcomers to opera, others veterans of myriad productions, all with opinions flowing from strong passions Indeed, if opera audiences often proclaim their verdicts with loud cheers or boos, it is because they feel deeply possessive about opera Yet rare is the opera devotee who likes all operas In fact, some verge on the sectarian, worshiping one composer,... audiences To satisfy this demand, opera houses are renovated and new ones are built Opera festivals keep multiplying, while crowds watch live performances on screens in squares and parks Four centuries after its inception, opera is alive and well GENRES OF OPERA In the 18th century, opera seria – and its comic cousin, opera buffa – were the dominant models, with sung recitatives and strict aria structures... least, of the devoted audiences who make opera what it is As authors, we too have been on a voyage We both began with our own favorite operas, composers, and musical periods But in selecting works for detailed examination, our research led us to discover new operatic treasures, and to admire the extraordinary variety and continuity of opera through the ages Opera is a richly rewarding world and it... Act I of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s crusader opera, Il crociato in Egitto, shows the elaborate sets that are so often a feature of opera 19 THE PARIS CROSSROADS Although Italian opera held its own, from the 1820s Paris became Europe’s opera capital, drawing composers from across Europe Their influence was abandoned composition In comic considerable Rossini, Donizetti, and operas like Il barbiere di Siviglia... created global hits like Cats and Phantom of the Opera Today, musicals dominate both Broadway and the West End, yet they can also serve as a gateway to opera The link between popular musicals and opera was underlined by the hit show Rent, which borrowed its story from Puccini’s opera La bohème Wagner’s Valkyries have long been caricatured as symbols of opera s otherworldliness Today, with Wagner’s Ring... vanished; in contrast, Renaissance and Baroque opera has been rediscovered with enthusiasm Today, contemporary M U S I C ’ S U N I QU E P O W E R opera is a minority taste, yet works are continually being composed and a few have entered the repertoire Opera s stories also matter Its scores can be recorded in studios or presented in concert version, yet opera was born as music theater, that is, music... as German, made opera popular in 18thcentury London, although the first opera an opera in musica – “a work in music.” in English, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Claudio Monteverdi is considered Aeneas, was performed as early as 1689 the father of opera because he took the Florentine experiment a step further: With L’Orfeo, presented in OPERA S REFORM Mantua in 1607, he absorbed his The prevailing model for... lyrical drama The new 17th and 18th centuries was opera seria, art quickly spread to other courts and with the narrative recounted in sung soon arrived in Venice There, with the dialogue called recitatives and moments opening of the city’s first opera house The artist Thomas Rowlandson captures the in 1637, opera reached a new public social dimension of opera- going in the 18th century in this lively and . dunton-downer introducing opera monteverdi to mozart Italian Opera germanic opera french opera russian opera Pages 12–47 Pages 48–121 Pages 122–201 Pages 202–259 Pages 260–305 Pages 306–339 czech opera modern opera Pages. OF OPERA 48 MONTEVERDI TO MOZART c.1600–1800 122 ITALIAN OPERA c.1800–1925 202 GERMANIC OPERA c.1800–1950 260 FRENCH OPERA c.1790–1900 10 INTRODUCTION 12 INTRODUCING OPERA 14 WHAT IS OPERA? 22 LIBRETTOS. lives of the operatic masters The operas Synopses of more than 160 operas from around the world Opera $25.00 USA $32.00 Canada I SB N 0-7566-2204-2 9 7 8 0 7 5 6 6 2 2 0 4 6 5 2 5 0 0 Opera Alan