Verdi's theater : creating drama through music / Gilles de Van ; translated from the French by Gilda Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van, Gilles de.

Standardized Title:

Verdi, un théâtre en musique. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Verdi, Giuseppe, 1813-1901. Operas.

Verdi, Giuseppe.

Opera--Dramaturgy.

Opera.

Physical Description:

ix, 424 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Summary:

In this innovative study, Gilles de Van focuses on an often neglected aspect of Verdi's operas: their effectiveness as theater. De Van argues that two main aesthetic conceptions underlie all of Verdi's works: that of the "melodrama" and the "musical drama". In the melodrama the composer relics mainly on dramatic intensity and the rhythm linking various stages of the plot, using exemplary characters and situations. But in the musical drama reality begins to blur, the musical forms lose their excessively neat patterns, and doubt and ambiguity undermine characters and situations, reflecting the crisis of character typical of modernity.

Although melodrama tends to dominate Verdi's early work and musical drama his later, both aesthetics are woven into all his operas: musical drama is already present in Ernani (1844), and melodrama is still present in Otello (1887). Indeed, much of the interest and originality of Verdi's operas lies in his adherence to both these contradictory systems, allowing the composer/dramatist to be simultaneously classical and modern traditionalist and innovator.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-409) and indexes.

ISBN:

0226143694

0226143708

OCLC:

37909875