Opera (Paperback)

Introduction; Part I: 1. Pre-operatic forms; 2. First operatic forms: Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Keiser; 3. Formalization; 4. Reform - the reintegration of elements; 5. Comedy and the 'real world'; 6. 'Authentic' performance; Part II: 7. Romanticism and romantic opera in Germany; 8. Opera in nineteenth-century Italy; 9. Grand Opera and the visual language of opera; 10. The Wagnerian revolution; 11. Nationalists: vernacular language and music; 12. The role of the singer; Part III: 13. The turn of the century and the crisis in opera; 14. First modernism: symbolist and expressionist opera; 15. The dramaturgy of opera: libretto - words and structure; 16. Narrative opera: realistic and non-realistic; 17. Radical narratives; 18. Directors and the direction of opera; Appendices: 1. Motifs from Der Ring; 2. The development of singing voices; 3. The development of lyric theatre alternatives to 'opera'; 4. Some major operas, artistic and political events of the twentieth century; Glossary of terms; Bibliography.