San Antonio College Library

"Benjamin Britten's dramatic works--full operas, chamber operas, and dramas for church performance--dominate the repertoire of contemporary English opera, though they no longer monopolize it. His Peter Grimes will always rank with The Siege of Rhodes as a new beginning for English opera; unlike Sir William D'Avenant's work, the score of Peter Grimes seems likely to survive. Performances of Britten's operas are, however, far from frequent, and the...

"A line-by-line analysis of the opera - its origins, structure, characters, orchestration and production history"--Back cover

This book provides a reliable summary of what is currently known about Otello, along with an interpretation of the significance of the work within Verdi's career. The book begins with a detailed synopsis which interweaves some of the specific stage action from the 1887 Milanese première. There follows a close consideration of how the opera was actually written: Arrigo Boito's derivation of the libretto from Shakespeare and the subsequent textual...

Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes is one of the few operas of the last half-century to have gained a secure place in the repertory. Its appearance in 1945 shortly after the end of the war in Europe was a milestone in operatic history as well as in British music. But the origins of the work lie in the United States, where Britten and his friend Peter Pears (the first Grimes) spent the years 1939-42. In 1941 they read an evocative essay by the novelist...

Norma is by common consent the finest of the ten operas composed during Vincenzo Bellini's short career, representing his genius more comprehensively than is usually the case with any single work by an operatic composer. This handbook provides the biographical and cultural context of the opera. It gives a full synopsis and an examination of the music and poetry, which is rooted in the aesthetics of early nineteenth-century Italian opera. The author...

This book is a compact, up-to-date guide to the history and construction of Verdi's last--and possibly greatest--opera. Incorporating the findings of the most recent research, it provides performers, opera enthusiasts, students and scholars alike with a reliable summary of what is currently known about the work. The book gives a full synopsis of the plot and a detailed account both of Verdi's aims in composing the opera and of how he actually composed...

This book is designed to introduce the non-specialist music lover to Britten's opera, The Turn of the Screw. The opening chapters by Vivien Jones and Patricia Howard deal with the literary source of the opera James's novella, the structure of the libretto, and the technique by which a short story was transformed into an opera. The central chapter, on the musical style and structures of the opera, includes an account of the composition process deduced...