Description
"Divas and Scholars" is a dazzling and beguiling account of how opera comes to the stage, filled with Philip Gossett's personal experiences of triumphant - and even failed - performances and suffused with his towering passion for music. Gossett, the world's leading authority on the performance of Italian opera, brings to life the problems, and occasionally the scandals, that attend the production of some of our favorite operas.Gossett begins by tracing the social history of nineteenth-century Italian theaters in order to explain the nature of the musical scores from which performers have long worked. He then illuminates the often hidden but crucial negotiations between what is written and how it is interpreted by opera conductors and performers. Throughout, Gossett enlivens his history with reports from his own experiences with major opera companies at venues ranging from the Metropolitan and Santa Fe operas to the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro.The result is a book that will enthrall both aficionados of Italian opera and newcomers seeking a reliable introduction to it - in all its incomparable grandeur and timeless allure.
About the Author
Philip Gossett is the Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor in Music and the College at the University of Chicago. He is the general editor of the Works of Giuseppe Verdi, published by the University of Chicago Press and Casa Ricordi, and the Works of Gioachino Rossini. In 2004 he received one of four lifetime achievement awards given by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and in 1998 he received the Cavaliere di Gran Croce, the highest civilian award given by the Italian government.
Reviews
"Philip Gossett is a superb scholar, but he is also a true man of the theater." - G. W. Bowersock, New Republic "This enthralling and important book offers vital reading for anyone with a serious interest in opera.... Written with unfailing clarity and waspish wit, it charts the musical problems, both theoretical and practical, presented by the autograph manuscripts, printed scores, and performances of this great corpus." - Rupert Christiansen, Spectator "The depth and scope of Gossett's book... makes it one that will be of immense value to anyone approaching the subject of opera in the so-called age of belcanto." - Patrick O'Connor, Literary Review "To my knowledge, there is no other book like it. No one else has treated an important genre of half a century in its social and political setting, its stylistic development, together with a detailed history of its dissemination and performance over a century and a half.... All of this is accomplished by a prose style sensible, often original, provocative, learned, technical but lucid, and always entertaining.... Philip Gossett shows a tolerance and a largeness of spirit rare in those scholars who have so much passion." - Charles Rosen, New York Review of Books"
Book Information
ISBN 9780226304878
Author Philip Gossett
Format Paperback
Page Count 704
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 1028g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 154mm * 41mm
About the Author
Philip Gossett is the Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor in Music and the College at the University of Chicago. He is the general editor of the Works of Giuseppe Verdi, published by the University of Chicago Press and Casa Ricordi, and the Works of Gioachino Rossini. In 2004 he received one of four lifetime achievement awards given by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and in 1998 he received the Cavaliere di Gran Croce, the highest civilian award given by the Italian government.
Reviews
"Philip Gossett is a superb scholar, but he is also a true man of the theater." - G. W. Bowersock, New Republic "This enthralling and important book offers vital reading for anyone with a serious interest in opera.... Written with unfailing clarity and waspish wit, it charts the musical problems, both theoretical and practical, presented by the autograph manuscripts, printed scores, and performances of this great corpus." - Rupert Christiansen, Spectator "The depth and scope of Gossett's book... makes it one that will be of immense value to anyone approaching the subject of opera in the so-called age of belcanto." - Patrick O'Connor, Literary Review "To my knowledge, there is no other book like it. No one else has treated an important genre of half a century in its social and political setting, its stylistic development, together with a detailed history of its dissemination and performance over a century and a half.... All of this is accomplished by a prose style sensible, often original, provocative, learned, technical but lucid, and always entertaining.... Philip Gossett shows a tolerance and a largeness of spirit rare in those scholars who have so much passion." - Charles Rosen, New York Review of Books"
Book Information
ISBN 9780226304878
Author Philip Gossett
Format Paperback
Page Count 704
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 1028g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 154mm * 41mm
