Singing utopia : voice in musical theatre / Ben Macpherson.
| Author/creator | Macpherson, Ben author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | New York : Oxford University Press, 2024. |
| Description | xiii, 271 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Oxford Scholarship Online Music |
| Subjects |
| Series | Critical perspectives in musical theatre |
| Contents | Introduction: Songs for new worlds -- Part I. Cultural contexts. Reaffirmation and rupture: why this is not opera -- Decadent appropriation: the process and politics of singing musical theatre -- Part II. Critical approaches. Two voiceworlds, three choralities: locating the voice -- Intermediate vocalities: between speech and song -- Rediscovering nostalgia: whose voice is it, anyway? -- Conclusion: Keep singing, Orpheus. |
| Abstract | This book offers an original and provocative account of singing voices in musical theatre. It listens to extraordinary voices in fifteen case studies, from Florodora to Hadestown, and hears an emotional and situational directness--a utopian sound which seems to escape the mundanity of everyday life. Yet, the very idea of the utopian is paradoxical, fraught with undercurrents of nostalgia, melancholy, and the perpetual threat of the dystopian. The book also explores these facets, and considers what it means for a musical to give voice to an imagined world which is always a contradiction in terms. Exploring who gets to inhabit such a world and who may be excluded, the book draws on a diverse range of disciplinary approaches from voice studies and musicology to literary studies and ethnography. It examines the political potentials and paradoxes of musical theatre vocality in relation to class, race, gender and culture. In doing so, this book examines current ways of listening to and analysing voice and at the same time moves beyond them to develop a series of new terms, including 'decadent appropriation', 'simuloquism', two kinds of 'voiceworld', and three new approaches to the chorus and ensemble. Together, these offer readers a new set of tools for listening to voice in musical theatre, with further applications to other fields. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-262) and index. |
| LCCN | 2024026013 |
| ISBN | 9780197557648 paperback |
| ISBN | 0197557643 paperback |
| ISBN | 9780197557631 hardcover |
| ISBN | 0197557635 hardcover |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | 0197557678 |
| ISBN | 0197557651 |
| ISBN | 019755766X |
| ISBN | 9780197557679 |
| ISBN | 9780197557655 |
| ISBN | 9780197557662 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML2054 .M23 2024 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |