One hundred years after the birth of Maria Callas, this landmark history charts the cultural and musical evolution of the soprano, and the achievements of its greatest exponents, from the 16th century to the 21st. Through extensive cross-cultural research and detailed musical analysis, Matthew Boyden traces the profound effects of social change, religion, philosophy, psychology, socio-economics, fashion, sexuality, race and technology on the sound, techniques and perception of the soprano as a musical and cultural phenomenon. Referencing hundreds of works of music, literature, theatre, painting, and cinema - and with multi-disciplinary discussions of everything from the effect of the corset to the politics of body-imagery - The Soprano: A Cultural History is the first book to approach the subject from a gendered perspective. Boyden reveals how five centuries of cultural and societal experience have shaped the soprano, spanning opera, art music, theatre and popular song. It forms the second part of Boyden's ground-breaking five-volume series on the sung voice. Wildly original in its scope and ambition, The Soprano: A Cultural History is a fascinating resource for anyone interested in the art, science and history of singing.

About the Author
Matthew Boyden is the author of nine acclaimed books on music, including The Tenor: A Cultural History, the best-selling Rough Guide to Opera, an award-winning biography of Richard Strauss (published in Britain, the United States, Hungary, France and Germany, where Die Welt awarded it Book of the Year), and Beethoven and the Gothic. He has written for numerous newspapers and music journals, and was Editor of CD Review. He was previously the amanuensis of the legendary British pianist, John Ogdon, and he is the producer and editor of more than 150 recordings, many of them recognised internationally by prizes and awards. He was the Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival of Words and Music and is the composer of twelve tediously derivative quartets. He is still working on an operatic setting of Boewulf, using the language as it survives in the Nowell Codex. He is consulting on the creation of a new music festival in Turin, of which he will be Artistic Director. At the same time, he is writing The Baritone: a Cultural History, for publication in 2025 (to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau). Boyden is giving a number of talks on Maria Callas in Italy, Greece and the United States throughout 2023.


Book Information
ISBN 9781399960403
Author Matthew Boyden
Format Hardback
Page Count 616
Imprint Ragueneau Press
Publisher Ragueneau Press
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 162mm * 56mm