Ellen Rosand shows how opera, born of courtly entertainment, took root in the special social and economic environment of seventeenth-century Venice and there developed the stylistic and aesthetic characteristics we recognize as opera today. With ninety-one music examples, most of them complete pieces nowhere else in print, and enlivened by twenty-eight illustrations, this landmark study will be essential for all students of opera, amateur and professional, and for students of European cultural history in general. Because ...
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Ellen Rosand shows how opera, born of courtly entertainment, took root in the special social and economic environment of seventeenth-century Venice and there developed the stylistic and aesthetic characteristics we recognize as opera today. With ninety-one music examples, most of them complete pieces nowhere else in print, and enlivened by twenty-eight illustrations, this landmark study will be essential for all students of opera, amateur and professional, and for students of European cultural history in general. Because opera was new in the seventeenth century, the composers (most notably Monteverdi and Cavalli), librettists, impresarios, singers, and designers were especially aware of dealing with aesthetic issues as they worked. Rosand examines critically for the first time the voluminous literary and musical documentation left by the Venetian makers of opera. She determines how these pioneers viewed their art and explains the mechanics of the proliferation of opera, within only four decades, to stages across Europe. Rosand isolates two features of particular importance to this proliferation: the emergence of conventions musical, dramatic, practical that facilitated replication; and the acute self-consciousness of the creators who, in their scores, librettos, letters, and other documents, have left us a running commentary on the origins of a genre.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. Text is bright and clean; binding is tight and square. Dust jacket shows just a little edge wear. Overseas/Priority shipping at cost. 684p.
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Seller's Description:
Book. Octavo; G-/G; Hardcover with DJ; DJ spine, gold with black print; DJ has mild edgewear, else clean and bright; Boards in black cloth, light wear to spine caps and corners, slight bump to bottom edge, slight puckering to cloth on rear, else clean and strong; Text block has underlining and marginal notation in pencil throughout; xxii, 684 pages, illustrated (b&w), printed music. 1363183. FP New Rockville Stock.