A book of operas, their histories, their plots, and their music / by Henry Edward Krehbiel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Krehbiel, Henry Edward, 1854-1923.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Operas--Stories, plots, etc.

Operas.

Opera.

Local Subjects:

Opera.

Genre:

Stories, plots, etc.

Plot summaries.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

2 volumes in 1. : illustrations ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Macmillan Co., 1937.

Contents:

I. "Il barbiere di sivigia" : First performance of Italian opera in the United States ; Production of Rossini's opera in Rome, London, Paris, and New York ; Thomas Phillipps and his English version ; Miss Leesugg and Mrs. Holman ; Emanuel Garcia and his troupe ; Malibran ; Early operas in America ; Colman's "Spanish Barber" ; Other Figaro operas ; How Rossini came to write "Il Barbiere" ; The story of a fiasco ; Garcia and his Spanish song ; "Segui, o caro" ; Giorgi-Righetti ; The plot of the opera ; The overture ; "Ecco ridente in cielo" ; "Una voce poco fa" ; Rossini and Patti ; The lesson scene and what singers have done with it ; Grisi, Alboni, Catalani, Bosio, Gassier, Patti, Sembrich, Melba, and Viardot ; An echo of Hayden

II. "Le nozze di Figaro" : Beaumarchais and his Figaro comedies ; "Le nozze" a sequel to "Il Barbiere" ; Mozart and Rossini ; Their operas compared ; Opposition to Beaumarchais's "Marriage de Figaro" ; Moral grossness of Mozart's opera ; A relic of feudalism ; Humor of the horns ; A merry overture ; The story of the opera ; Cherubino ; "Non so piu cosa son" ; Benucci and the air "Non piu andrai" ; "Voi che sapete" ; A marvelous finale ; The song to the zephyr ; A Spanish fandango ; "Deh vieni non tardar"

III. "Die zauberflote" : The oldest German opera current in America ; Beethoven's appreciation of Mozart's opera ; Its Teutonism ; Otto Jahn's estimate ; Papageno, the German Punch ; Emanuel Schikaneder ; Wieland and the original of the story of the opera ; How "Die zauberflote" came to be written ; The overture to the opera ; The fugue theme and a theme from a sonata by Clementi ; The opera's play ; "O Isis und Osiris" ; "Hellish rage" and fiorituri ; The song of the two men in armor ; Goethe and the libretto of "Die Zauberflote" ; How the opera should be viewed

IV. "Don giovanni" : The oldest Italian operas in the American repertory ; Mozart as an influence ; What great composers have said about "Don Giovanni" ; Beethoven ; Rossini ; Gounod ; Wagner ; History of the opera ; Da Ponte's pilferings ; Bertati and Gazzaniga's "Convitato di Pietra" ; Hos the overture to "Don Giovanni" was written ; First performances of the opera in Prague, Vienna, London, and New York ; Garcia and Da Ponte ; Malibran ; English versions of the opera ; The Spanish tale of Don Juan Tenorio ; Dramatie versions ; The tragical note in the oberture ; The plot of the opera ; Gounod of the beautiful in Mozart's music ; Leporello's catalogue ; "Batti, batti o bel Masetto" ; The three dances in the first finale ; The last scene ; Mozart quotes from his contemporaries ; The original close of the opera

V. "Fidelio" : An opera based on conjugal love ; "Fidelio," "Orfeo," and "Alceste" ; Beethoven a sincere moralist ; Technical history of "Fidelio" ; The subject treated by Paer and Gaveaux ; Beethoven's commission ; The first performance a failure ; A revision by the composer's friends ; The second trial ; Beethoven withdraws his opera ; A second revision ; The revival of 1814 ; Success at last ; First performances in London and New York ; The opera enriched by a ballet ; Plot of "Fidelio" ; The first duet ; The canon quartet ; A dramatic trio ; Milder-Hauptmann and the great scena ; Floreston's air ; The trumpet call ; The opera's four overtures ; Their history

VI. "Faust" : The love story in Gounod's opera ; Ancient bondsmen of the devil ; Zoroaster, Democritus, Empedocles, Apollonius, Virgil, Albertus Magnus, Merlin, Paracelsus, Theophilus of Syracuse ; The myth-making capacity ; Bismarck and the needle-gun ; Printing, a black art ; Johann Fust of Mayence ; The veritable Faust ; Testimony of Luther and Melanchthon ; The literary history of Dr. Faustus ; Goethe and his predecessors ; Faust's covenant with Mephistopheles ; Dr. Faustus and matrimony ; The Polish Faust ; The devil refuses to marry Madame Twardowska ; History of Gounod's opera ; The first performance ; Popularity of the opera ; First productions in London and New York ; The story ; Marguerite and Gretchen ; The jewel song ; The ballet

VII. "Mefistofele" : Music in the mediaeval Faust plays ; Early operas on the subject ; Meyerbeer and Goethe's poem ; Composers of Faust music ; Beethoven ; Boito's reverence for Goethe's poem ; His work as a poet ; A man of mixed blood ; "Mefistofele" a fiasco in Milan ; The opera revised ; Boito's early ambitions ; Disconnected episodes ; Philosophy of the opera ; Its scope ; Use of a typical phrase ; The plot ; Humors of the English translation ; Music of the prologue ; The Book of Job ; Boito's metrical schemes ; The poodle and the friar ; A Polish dance in the Rhine country ; Gluck and Vestris ; The scene of the Brocken ; The Classical Sabbath ; Helen of Troy ; A union of classic and romantic art ; First performance of Boito's opera in America

VIII. "La damnation de Faust" : Berlioz's dramatic legend ; "A thing of shreds and patches" ; Turned into an opera by Raoul Gunsbourg ; The composer's "Scenes from Faust" ; History of the composition ; The Rakoczy March ; Concert performances in New York ; Scheme of the work ; The dance of the sylphs and the aerial ballet ; Dance of the will-o'-wisps ; The ride to hell

IX. "La traviata" : Familiarity with music and its effects ; An experience of the authors ; Prelude to Verdi's last act ; Expressiveness of some melodies ; Verdi, the dramatist ; Von Bulow and Mascagni ; How "Traviata" came to be written ; Piave, the librettist ; Composed simultaneously with "Il Trovatore" ; Failure of "La Traviata" ; The causes ; The style of the music ; Dr. Basevi's view ; Changes in costuming ; The opera succeeds ; First performance in New York ; A criticism by W. H. Fry ; Story of the opera ; Dumas's story and Charles Dickens ; Controversy as a help to popular success

X. "Aida" : Popular misconceptions concerning the origin of Verdi's opera ; The Suez Canal and Cairo Opera-house ; A pageant opera ; Local color ; The entombment scene ; The commission for the opera ; The plot and its author, Mariette Bey ; His archaeological discoveries at Memphis ; Camille du Locle and Antonio Ghislanzoni ; First performance of the opera ; Unpleasant experiences in Paris ; The plot ; Ancient Memphis ; Oriental melodies and local color ; An exotic scale ; The antique trumpet and their march

XI. "Der Freischutz" : The overture ; The plot ; A leitmotif before Wagner ; Berlioz and Agathe's air ; The song of the Bridesmaids ; Wagner and his dying stepfather ; The Teutonism of the opera ; Fact from a court record ; Folklore of the subject ; Holda, Wotan, and the wild hunt ; How magical bullets may be obtained ; Wagner's description of the Wolf's Glen ; Romanticism and classicism ; Weber and Theodor Korner ; German opera at Dresdon ; composition of "Der Freischutz" ; First performances in New York

XII. "Tannhauser" : Wagner and Greek ideals ; Methods of Wagnerian study ; The story of the opera ; Poetical and musical contents of the overture ; The bacchanale ; The Tannhauser legend ; The historical Tannhauser ; The contest of minstrels in the Wartburg ; Mediaeval ballads ; Heroes and their charmers ; Classical and other parallels ; Caves of Venus ; The Horselberg in Thuringia ; Dame Holda ; The tale of Sir Adelbert

XIII. "Tristan und Isolde" : The old legend of Tristram and Iseult ; Its literary history ; Ancient elements ; Wagner's ethical changes ; How the drama came to be written ; Frau Wesendonck ; Wagner and Dom Pedro of Grazil ; First performance in Munich and New York ; The prelude ; Wagner's poetical exposition ; The song of the sailor ; A symbol of suffering ; The death phrase ; The shepherd's mournful melody ; His merry tune ; Tristan's death

XIV. "Parsifal" : The story ; The oracle ; The musical symbol of Parsifal ; Herzeleide ; Kundry ; Suffering and lamentation ; The bells and march ; The Eucharistic hymn ; The love-feast formula ; Faith ; Unveiling of the grail ; Klingsor's incantation ; The flower maidens ; The quest of the Holy Grail ; Personages and elements of the legend ; Ethical idea of Wagner's aim ; The Knights Templars ; John the Baptist, Herodias, and the bloody head ; Relics of Christ's sufferings ; The Holy Grail at Genoa ; The sacred lances at Nuremberg and Rome ; Ancient and mediaeval parallels of personages, Apparatuses, and scenes ; Wagner's philosophy ; Buddhism ; First performances of "Parsifal" in Bayreuth and New York

XV. "Die meistersinger von Nurnberg" : "Ridendo castigat mores" ; Wagner's adherence to classical ideals of tragedy and comedy ; the subject of the satire in "Die meistersinger" ; Wagenseil's book on Nuremberg ; Plot of the comedy ; The Church of St. Catherine in Nuremberg ; A relic of the mastersingers ; Mastersongs in the municipal Library ; Wagner's chorus of mastersingers ; A poem by Sixtus Beckmesser ; The German drama in Nuremberg ; Hans Sachs's plays ; His Tannhauser tragedy ; "Tristram and Iseult" ; "The Wittenberg Nightingale" and "Wach'auf!" ; Wagner's quotation from an authentic mastersong melody ; Romanticism and classicism ; The prelude to "Die meistersinger"

XVI. "Lohengrin" : Wolfram von Eschenbach's story of Loherangrin ; Other sources of the Lohengrin legend ; "Der jungere titurel" and "Le Chevalier au Cygne" ; The plot of Wagner's opera ; A mixture of myths ; Relationship of the Figaro operas ; Contradictions between "Lohengrin" and "Parsifal" ; The forbidden question ; Wagner's love of theatrical effect ; The finale of "Tannhauser" ; The law of taboo in "Lohengrin" ; Jupiter and Semele ; Cupid and Psyche ; The saga of Skeaf ; King Henry, the Fowler

XVII. "Hansel und Gretel" : Wagner's influence and his successors ; Engelbert Humperdinck ; Myths and fairy tales ; Origin of "Hansel und Gretel" ; First performances ; An application of Wagernian principles ; The prelude ; The prayer theme ; The counter-charm ; Theme of fulfillment ; Story of the opera ; A relic of an old Christmas song ; Theme of the witch ; The theme of promise ; "Ring around a Rosy" ; The "Knusperwalzer."

Notes:

"New edition ... December, 1919. Reprinted January, 1925: June, 1928."

"Combining 'A book of operas' and 'A second book of operas'."

נושא ישן: Operas - stories, plots, etc.

נושא ישן: Opera - history and criticism

OCLC:

646490