Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
The "keys" provided by Hervé Lacombe in this richly informed book open the door to understanding the essence of nineteenth-century French lyric theater. Lacombe illuminates the diverse elements that constitute opera by focusing his investigation around three main categories: composition and production; words, music, and drama; and the interaction of society, genre, and aesthetics.
Lacombe chooses Bizet's Pearl Fishers (1863) as the exemplar of French opera that combines tradition and innovation. He uses Pearl Fishers as a paradigmatic point of reference for exploring questions of genesis, style, and aesthetic in other nineteenth-century French operatic works. French opera was a social art, he writes, and looping between past and future, between tradition and innovation, it achieved the seemingly impossible union of two antithetical aspects of Romanticism: the taste for theatricality and the desire for intimacy.
The voices of contemporary witnesses are heard throughout Lacombe's book. He makes abundant use of the writings of such musician-critics as Berlioz, Reyer, and Saint-Saëns and also draws on the works of many French writers, including Stendhal, Balzac, Baudelaire, and Zola. Illustrations showing costume sketches, scenery, posters, paintings, photographs, and magazine articles are attractive complements to discussions of particular operas. Together with Edward Schneider's accessible translation, the illustrations make this well-rounded and original study a trove of information for both music scholars and French historians.
Lacombe chooses Bizet's Pearl Fishers (1863) as the exemplar of French opera that combines tradition and innovation. He uses Pearl Fishers as a paradigmatic point of reference for exploring questions of genesis, style, and aesthetic in other nineteenth-century French operatic works. French opera was a social art, he writes, and looping between past and future, between tradition and innovation, it achieved the seemingly impossible union of two antithetical aspects of Romanticism: the taste for theatricality and the desire for intimacy.
The voices of contemporary witnesses are heard throughout Lacombe's book. He makes abundant use of the writings of such musician-critics as Berlioz, Reyer, and Saint-Saëns and also draws on the works of many French writers, including Stendhal, Balzac, Baudelaire, and Zola. Illustrations showing costume sketches, scenery, posters, paintings, photographs, and magazine articles are attractive complements to discussions of particular operas. Together with Edward Schneider's accessible translation, the illustrations make this well-rounded and original study a trove of information for both music scholars and French historians.
Price: $63.00
Pages: 442
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
12 January 2001
ISBN: 9780520922372
Format: eBook
List of Illustrations
Preface to the English Edition
Introduction
Part 1 Genesis, Performance, and Reception
1 The Genesis of an Opera
2 Performance
3 Reception
Part 2 Drama, Poetry, and Music
4 The Construction of a Drama
5 Space and Time
6 Poetic Expression and Musical Expression
Part 3 French Opera: Society, Genre, and Aesthetics
7 The Parisian Operatic World
8 Genre
9 The Aesthetic Foundations of Nineteenth-Century French Opera
Conclusion
Appendix 1 The Sources of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles
Appendix 2 The Versions of Les Pêcheurs de perles
Appendix 3 Several States of the Beginning of the Act 2 Finale
Appendix 4 Passages Cut in the Course of Performance
Appendix 5 Performances and Daily Box-Office Receipts of the Théâtre-Lyrique,September 27–November 28, 1863
Appendix 6 The Staging of Les Pêcheurs de perles
Appendix 7 Symmetrical Versification and Reformulation of the Text
Biographical Notes on Composers
Notes
Index
Preface to the English Edition
Introduction
Part 1 Genesis, Performance, and Reception
1 The Genesis of an Opera
2 Performance
3 Reception
Part 2 Drama, Poetry, and Music
4 The Construction of a Drama
5 Space and Time
6 Poetic Expression and Musical Expression
Part 3 French Opera: Society, Genre, and Aesthetics
7 The Parisian Operatic World
8 Genre
9 The Aesthetic Foundations of Nineteenth-Century French Opera
Conclusion
Appendix 1 The Sources of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles
Appendix 2 The Versions of Les Pêcheurs de perles
Appendix 3 Several States of the Beginning of the Act 2 Finale
Appendix 4 Passages Cut in the Course of Performance
Appendix 5 Performances and Daily Box-Office Receipts of the Théâtre-Lyrique,September 27–November 28, 1863
Appendix 6 The Staging of Les Pêcheurs de perles
Appendix 7 Symmetrical Versification and Reformulation of the Text
Biographical Notes on Composers
Notes
Index