03809nam 22006135 450 99644885200331620190708092533.01-4008-6668-510.1515/9781400866687(CKB)2670000000587910(EBL)1843641(SSID)ssj0001402376(PQKBManifestationID)12617557(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001402376(PQKBWorkID)11359355(PQKB)10658498(OCoLC)898476999(MdBmJHUP)muse42841(MiAaPQ)EBC1843641(DE-B1597)459750(OCoLC)940681396(OCoLC)999361881(DE-B1597)9781400866687(PPN)259897396(EXLCZ)99267000000058791020190708d2014 fg engur|n|---|||||txtccrLeonora's Last Act Essays in Verdian Discourse /Roger ParkerPrinceton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2014]©19981 online resource (201 p.)Princeton Studies in Opera ;31Description based upon print version of record.1-322-51434-8 0-691-01557-0 Includes bibliographical references.Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- CHAPTER ONE. On Reaching the Beguiled Shore -- CHAPTER TWO. "Va pensiero" and the Insidious Mastery of Song -- CHAPTER THREE. "Insolite forme," or Basevi's Garden Path -- CHAPTER FOUR. Leonora's Last Act: La forza del destino -- CHAPTER FIVE. Falstaff and Verdi's Final Narratives -- CHAPTER SIX. Reading the livrets, or the Chimera of "Authentic" Staging -- CHAPTER SEVEN. Lina Kneels; Gilda Sings -- CHAPTER EIGHT. Leonora's Last Act: It trovatoreIn these essays, Roger Parker brings a series of valuable insights to bear on Verdian analysis and criticism, and does so in a way that responds both to an opera-goer's love of musical drama and to a scholar's concern for recent critical trends. As he writes at one point: "opera challenges us by means of its brash impurity, its loose ends and excess of meaning, its superfluity of narrative secrets." Verdi's works, many of which underwent drastic revisions over the years and which sometimes bore marks of an unusual collaboration between composer and librettist, illustrate in particular why it can sometimes be misleading to assign fixed meanings to an opera. Parker instead explores works like Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La forza del destino, and Falstaff from a variety of angles, and addresses such contentious topics as the composer's involvement with Italian politics, the possibilities of an "authentic" staging of his work, and the advantages and pitfalls of analyzing his operas according to terms that his contemporaries might have understood. Parker takes into account many of the interdisciplinary influences currently engaging musicologists, in particular narrative and feminist theory. But he also demonstrates that close attention to the documentary evidence--especially that offered by autograph scores--can stimulate equal interpretive activity. This book serves as a model of research and critical thinking about opera, while nevertheless retaining a deep respect for opera's continuing power to touch generations of listeners.Princeton studies in opera.OperaItaly19th centuryElectronic books. Opera782.1/092Parker Roger, 911676DE-B1597DE-B1597BOOK996448852003316Leonora's Last Act2555071UNISA