Inventing the opera house : theater architecture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy / Eugene J. Johnson, Williams College ; photographs by Ralph Lieberman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnson, Eugene J., 1937- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Lieberman, Ralph, photographer.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater architecture.

History.

Italy.

Theater architecture--Italy--History.

Architecture, Renaissance--Italy.

Architecture, Renaissance.

Architecture, Baroque--Italy.

Architecture, Baroque.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xviii, 330 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 27 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Summary:

In this book, Eugene Johnson traces the invention of the opera house, a building type of world-wide importance. Italy laid the foundation theatre buildings in the West, in architectural spaces invented for the commedia dell'arte in the sixteenth century, and theatres built to present the new art form of opera in the seventeenth. Rulers lavished enormous funds on these structures. Often they were among the most expensive artistic undertakings of a given prince. They were part of an upsurge of theatrical invention in the performing arts. At the same time, the productions that took place within the opera house could threaten the social order, to the point where rulers would raze them. Johnson reconstructs the history of the opera house by bringing together evidence from a variety of disciplines, including music, art, theatre, and politics. Writing in an engaging manner, he sets the history of the opera house within its broader early modern social context.

Contents:

Ferrara and Mantua, 1486-1519

Rome 1480's-1520

Early theaters in Venice and the Veneto

Sixteenth century Florence, with excursions to Venice, Lyon and Siena

Early permanent theaters and the commedia dell'arte

Theaters in the ancient manner and Andrea Palladio

Drama-tourney theaters

Ferrara, Parma, Pesaro, and theaters of Giovanni Battista Aleotti

Seventeenth century theaters in Venice: the invention of the opera house

Seventeenth century theaters for comedy and opera

Teatro di Tordinona in Rome, Queen Christina of Sweden, and Carlo Fontana.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781108421744

1108421741

OCLC:

994287533

Publisher Number:

40028198148