Opera production and its resources / edited by Lorenzo Bianconi and Giorgio Pestelli ; translated by Lydia G. Cochrane.
| Other author | Bianconi, Lorenzo, editor. |
| Other author | Pestelli, Giorgio, editor. |
| Other author | Cochrane, Lydia G., translator. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1998. |
| Description | xviii, 440 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Uniform title | Sistema produttivo e le sue competenze. |
| Series | The history of Italian opera ; v. 4. Part II, Systems Storia dell'opera italiana. English ; v. 4. ^A983324 Storia dell'opera italiana. Parte II, Sistemi. English. ^A1413139 |
| Contents | Opera production to 1780 / Franco Piperno. Court operatic spectacles ; Court opera and commercial opera ; Traveling companies: the cooperative, organized diffusion of commercial opera ; Impresarial opera: ends and means: the single impresario and impresarial associations ; The impresario and the theater public ; Municipal opera houses and collective management in the eighteenth century ; Ballet and its mechanisms of production ; The production and diffusion of opera seria ; The production and diffusion of intermezzi and comic opera -- Opera production, 1780-1880 / John Rosselli. Opera as the expression of a hierarchical and conservative society ; The economic vicissitudes of the opera industry ; The strong arm of authority ; The profession of the impresario ; The labor market ; The impresario and the public -- Opera production from Italian unification to the present / Fiamma Nicolodi. Opera in the new Italy: municipal theaters and impresarial management ; The role of singers, joint stock companies, and publishers ; The Giolitti era: from the Politeama to the first Ente Autonomo ; The fascist regime: tradition and transformation ; The new republic: reconstruction and the "consumer society" ; The Corona Act and the current situation -- The librettist / Fabrizio Della Seta. A problem of conscience ; The seventeenth century ; The eighteenth century ; The nineteenth century ; From the nineteenth to the twentieth century -- The opera composer / Elvido Surian. Social background ; Schooling, professional training, apprenticeship ; Entry into the production system, career, opera production ; The creative process: work methods and schedules -- The opera singer / Sergio Durante. The court singer mounts the theatrical machine ; Church, theater, and school ; From Modena to Bologna: criticism and growth ; The virtuosi: background, training, itineraries, specialties ; An Italian "school": images and economic conditions ; Bel canto: the market and the myth ; The voice mirrored. |
| Abstract | This book traces the social, economic, and artistic history of the production of opera from its origins around 1600 to contemporary stagings. From the very beginning, opera has been a chronically deficit-producing enterprise. Yet it maintained unchallenged preeminence in the culture of all Italians for centuries. The first half explores the central role of theater impresarios in putting on these complex productions and in increasing the output of librettos and scores. The second half considers the roles of the three key figures in the creation of any opera: the librettist, the composer, and the singer. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| Language | Translated from the Italian. |
| LCCN | 98144889 |
| ISBN | 0226045900 (alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 9780226045900 (alk. paper) |