Henry Purcell and the London stage / Curtis Alexander Price.
| Author/creator | Price, Curtis Alexander, 1945- |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1984. |
| Description | xiv, 380 pages, 6 pages of plates : illustrations, portraits, music ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Part I: The plays. Music in the late seventeenth-century English theatre ; What is English opera? ; Plays with music ; Purcell and the theatre companies ; Purcell's musical style ; Meanings of keys in the theatre music -- The serious dramas. Early works. Theodosius ; King Richard the Second -- The revivals of Dryden's heroic plays. The Indian Emperour ; Tyrannick Love ; The Conquest of Granada ; Aureng-Zebe -- Two tragedies of Nathaniel Lee. Sophonisba ; The Massacre of Paris -- New plays of the nineties. Distress'd Innocence ; Cleomenes ; Regulus ; Henry the Second ; The Fatal Marriage ; The Rival Sisters ; Oroonoko ; Pausanias -- Patent company revivals of 1695. Abdelazer ; The Spanish Fryar ; Timon of Athens -- The tragic extravaganzas. Circe ; Oedipus ; The Libertine ; Bonduca ; The Indian Queen -- The comedies. Dryden. Amphitryon ; Love Triumphant -- Durfey. Sir Barnaby Whigg ; A Fool's Preferment ; The Marriage-Hater Match'd ; The Richmond Heiress -- Southerne. Sir Anthony Love ; The Wives Excuse ; The Maid's Last Prayer -- Congreve. The Old Batchelour ; The Double-Dealer -- Other comedies of the early nineties. The Female Vertuoso's ; The Married Beau ; The Canterbury Guests ; The Mock-Marriage -- Revivals. The English Lawyer ; The Knight of Malta ; Rule of a Wife and Have a Wife ; Epsom-Wells ; The Tempest -- The comic extravaganza: Don Quixote -- Part II: the operas. Dido and Aeneas. Backgrounds ; The allegory ; Measure for measure ; The librettos and the Tenbury score ; Music and drama -- Dioclesian. Albion and Albanius ; The Prophetess ; The music ; The masque -- King Arthur. Allegorical designs ; The case for an English opera ; The music -- The Fairy-Queen. The adaptation of Shakespeare's plays ; The sources ; The music. |
| Abstract | This book was the first comprehensive survey of Purcell's dramatic music. It is concerned as much with the London theatre world--playhouses, poets, actors, singers, producers--as with the music itself. Purcell wrote music for more than fifty plays of various types, most of them produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, between 1690 and 1695. The songs, dialogues, choruses, act tunes and larger musical scenes are often active participants in the spoken drama, not simply grafted-on entertainments. The extraordinary semi-operas---Dioclesian, King Arthur, and The Fairy-Queen--are placed in the context of a theatre that thrived mainly on plays that, though less lavish, were no less musical. The traditional picture of a composer trapped within a degraded musical society, his natural predilection for opera ignored, is redrawn to show a consummate dramatist exploiting a remarkably musical theatre. |
| Local note | Joyner-JOYNER STANDING ORDER |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 358-362) and index. |
| LCCN | 83015170 |
| ISBN | 0521238315 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.P93 P7 1984 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |