Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle / Marian Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Marian Elizabeth, author.

Series:

Princeton studies in opera.

Princeton Studies in Opera ; 21

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Adam, Adolphe, 1803-1856. Giselle.

Ballet--France--Paris--History--19th century.

Ballet.

Opera--France--Paris--19th century.

Opera.

Physical Description:

330p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2010]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Marian Smith recaptures a rich period in French musical theater when ballet and opera were intimately connected. Focusing on the age of Giselle at the Paris Opéra (from the 1830's through the 1840's), Smith offers an unprecedented look at the structural and thematic relationship between the two genres. She argues that a deeper understanding of both ballet and opera--and of nineteenth-century theater-going culture in general--may be gained by examining them within the same framework instead of following the usual practice of telling their histories separately. This handsomely illustrated book ultimately provides a new portrait of the Opéra during a period long celebrated for its box-office successes in both genres. Smith begins by showing how gestures were encoded in the musical language that composers used in ballet and in opera. She moves on to a wide range of topics, including the relationship between the gestures of the singers and the movements of the dancers, and the distinction between dance that represents dancing (entertainment staged within the story of the opera) and dance that represents action. Smith maintains that ballet-pantomime and opera continued to rely on each other well into the nineteenth century, even as they thrived independently. The "divorce" between the two arts occurred little by little, and may be traced through unlikely sources: controversies in the press about the changing nature of ballet-pantomime music, shifting ideas about originality, complaints about the ridiculousness of pantomime, and a little-known rehearsal score for Giselle. ?

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Tables and Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Note to the Reader: A Few Terms

Chapter One. Introduction: Music and the Story

Chapter Two. A Family Resemblance

Chapter Three. The Lighter Tone of Ballet-Pantomime

Chapter Four. Ballet-Pantomime and Silent Language

Chapter Five. Hybrid Works at the Opéra

Chapter Six. Giselle

Appendix One. Ballet-Pantomimes and Operas Produced at the Paris Opera, 1825 -1850

Appendix Two. The Giselle Libretto

Appendix Three. Sources for Musical Examples

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes libretto for Giselle in French with English translation.

Includes bibliographical references, and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780691049946

0691049947

9781400832477

1400832470

OCLC:

900633343