Main entry:

Donington, Robert.

Title & Author:

The rise of opera / Robert Donington.

Publication:

London ; Boston : Faber and Faber, 1981.

Description:

399 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 26 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-361) and index.
Part one : The approach to opera -- Defining opera. Drama as the essence of opera ; A totality of staged words and music -- The philosophical ingredient. The long arm of neoplatonism ; The start of renaissance neoplatonism ; The spread of renaissance neoplatonism ; Ficino's platonic inwardness -- The poetical ingredient. Neoplatonic poetry in Italy ; Pastoral drama ; Allegory and symbolism -- The musical ingredient. Music and drama ; Modulation and monody -- The threshold. Neoplatonic spectacles in Italy ; A union of the arts in France ; Circe : a French court ballet ; Conti's contemporary explanation ; Bardi's Florentine interludes -- The reciting style. Declamation the central problem ; Sound and sense in poetry ; Poetry in music ; Groups and personalities at Florence ; The start of the reciting style ; Varieties of the reciting style -- The modern style. The reciting style as modern style ; The second practice ; The emulating style ; A blend of styles in early opera -- Part two : The achievement of opera -- Across the threshold. Three pastorals near to opera ; Dafine : the earliest opera ; Cavalieri's contribution ; Peri's achievement ; Caccini's exaggerated claims ; Doni's balanced summary -- Opera achieved. The structure of Dafine ; The story of Dafine ; The neoplatonic images -- Opera comes into fashion. Borderline opera ; The genre arrives ; A Florentine wedding ; Opera thereafter taken for granted -- Monteverdi and his 'Orfeo'. From Florence to Mantua ; An opening Toccata ; A neoplatonic personification ; Act I : a pastoral idyll ; A dramatic irony ; Act II : sudden catastrophe ; The mythology of snakes ; Act III : the descent ; Act IV : the underworld ; The prohibition disobeyed ; Act V : immortality ; The neoplatonic ending -- Consolidation. The human touch ; Neoplatonic opera in decline ; Initiatives outside Italy.
Rome and Venice. Rome and Venice compared ; Roman spectacle ; Neoplatonism again ; Roman opera falls back ; Venetian opera takes up ; Popular opera at Venice -- Monteverdi at Venice. Monteverdi's later output ; Gods and men ; The familiar Homeric scenario unfolds ; Monteverdi's last opera ; What happens to the history ; The fairy-tale beneath the history -- Part three : The broadening of opera -- The Venetian succession. The end of the beginning ; Cavalli as successor ; A pioneering opera of intrigue ; Relaxing the craftsmanship ; Comedy and pathos ; Symptoms of transition -- The Italian sequel. Italian opera on the change ; Mid-baroque opera ; Chamber cantata in advance of opera ; Transition accelerates -- Part four : The dividing of opera -- The approach to French opera. French court ballet ; The Italian influence ; The anti-Italian reaction -- The rise of French opera. Two failed attempts ; Lully successful ; Lully and Quinault ; The French Academy ; The French convention -- Love and glory. A chivalric fantasy ; A dark forest of misunderstanding ; A dark prison of the spirit ; The answering glow -- Appendix. Opera and the calendar.
Dust jacket.

Resources:
French equivalent / Équivalent français

ISBN:

0571116744
9780571116744
0684171651
9780684171654

Subject:

Opera.
Opéra.
Entstehung
Geschichte
Oper
Opera's.
Ontstaansgeschiedenis.
Opera 16th century History and criticism.
Opera 17th century History and criticism.
Opera, to ca 1700

Holdings:

Location: Library main 283392
Call No.: BIB 221531
Status: Available