Operatic Performances in England Before Handel - Couverture souple

Armstrong, A Joseph

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1437031161 ISBN 13 : 9781437031164

Editeur : Kessinger Publishing, 2008

Synopsis

Operatic Performances In England Before Handel is a historical book written by A. Joseph Armstrong in 1918. The book explores the history of opera performances in England prior to the arrival of George Frideric Handel in 1710. It provides a comprehensive overview of the development of opera in England, from the first Italian operas performed in the 17th century to the establishment of the Royal Academy of Music in 1719. The book also examines the social and cultural context of opera performances in England during this period, including the role of aristocratic patrons and the influence of French and Italian musical styles. Armstrong draws on a wide range of primary sources, including contemporary accounts, letters, and diaries, to provide a detailed and engaging account of the early history of opera in England. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and enthusiasts of opera, music history, and cultural studies.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

From the beginning of the first chapter.
This study deals chiefly with the early opera in its connection with English letters. Music has been considered only as it serves to give a more distinct and comprehensive view of the principal theme. This limitation is necessary because with a few exceptions the scores of operas composed before the time of Handel have been lost. The nature of the music therefore can only be surmised from incidental references to it, scattered throughout diaries, letters and other contemporary records.
The seventeenth century idea of opera differed materially from our own. The essentials of opera in Italy and France varied in important details from those of English opera so that a definition must be formulated covering the English conditions. An opera, it would seem, was a drama, either tragic or comic, which called to its aid in its presentation the sister art of music in the form of set songs, choruses and recitatives. Its subject was commonly romantic, and it employed like other romantic drama, the effectiveness of elaborate scenery, stage effects and costuming, setting more store on these accessories than did other plays. It differed from the masque in the subsidiary place which it gave to dancing and in the greater coherence of its plot. Though it suffered in its history certain changes in detail, its essential features lay in the fact that it was a musical drama.
Davenant was the first writer of English opera. But to him an opera was any dramatic performance with song, recitative, instrumental music and scenic accompaniment. Joseph Knight accounts thus for Davenant's usage of the term: "His reason for using the word seems to have been almost entirely commercial, without much consideration for fitness. It was necessary to hoodwink the Puritan police authorities in order to give the production, 'Long after he had dismissed the music and produced regular tragedies, he adhered to the word opera, the use of which had enabled him to steer his bark in "ticklish" times.'" Knight seems a trifle too general in his assertions, for there were certainly operatic elements in the Siege of Rhodes, in Sir Francis Drake and in The Spaniards in Peru. Time and again moreover Davenant is referred to by Dryden, Langbaine, Dennis and others as the one who first introduced opera. As to his "adherence to the word long after he had dismissed the music," there is no record that a new English opera was played during Davenant's lifetime, after the earliest years of the Restoration period. His own operatic version of Macbeth was not presented until 1672, several years after his death. There would seem then to be no reason for his continuance of the use of the word. Instead of dismissing musical accompaniments, it is far more probable in conformity to the trend of the Restoration stage, that he favored the introduction of music into his dramas in increasing proportion. Even conceding that Davenant's purpose in his earlier performances was largely mercenary, his remodeled Siege of Rhodes may be held to have been influenced also by other considerations. It has evidences of a conscious striving for artistic expression and complexity of plot, and it certainly set an example for later operas....

Présentation de l'éditeur

No Md in English Literature has received less attention than that of the heroic drama, and inseparably connected with this is the lo-called literary opera, for the composen who wrote the one, also wrote the other. I have chronicled the riae and progress of the English opera from 1656, the date of its initial performance, until the introduction in 1710 of Italian librettos by Handel and his co-workera. Little or nottiing has been written on the consecutive history of the opera between those two dates. The works themselves are nol Ms Ily available and for that reason I have given epitomes of the operas and I have collected many facts concerning this excrescence of literature. I have read every extant opera, many of which are to be found only in the library of the British Museum. My indebtedness to the librarians of Havard and Columbia Colleges, of the University of Pennqrlvanla, of the Congressional Library and of the British Museum, I gratefully acknowledge.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Kessinger Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1437031161
• ISBN 13: 9781437031164
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 76
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Allemagne