Sentimental opera : questions of genre in the age of bourgeois drama / Stefano Castelvecchi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Castelvecchi, Stefano, 1960- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in opera.

Cambridge studies in opera

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Opera--18th century.

Opera.

Domestic drama--History and criticism.

Domestic drama.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 277 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Sentimental Opera is a study of the relationship between opera and two major phenomena of eighteenth-century European culture - the cult of sensibility and the emergence of bourgeois drama. A thorough examination of social and cultural contexts helps to explain the success of operas such as Paisiello's Nina as well as the extreme emotional reactions of their audiences. Like their counterparts in drama, literature and painting, these works brought to the fore serious contemporary problems including the widespread execution of deserters, the treatment of the insane, and anxieties relative to social and familial roles. They also developed a specifically operatic version of the dominant language of sensibility. This wide-ranging study involves such major cultural figures as Goldoni, Diderot and Mozart, while refining our understanding of the theatrical genre system of their time.

Contents:

A prologue on genre

Pamela goes to the opera

The emergence of bourgeois drama

The codification of bourgeois drama

Opera as drame

Sensibility and the moral cure

A sentimental opera

Sentimental, anti-sentimental

Avenues.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-45310-0

1-108-46183-2

1-139-89008-5

1-107-46023-9

1-107-45883-8

1-107-46466-8

0-511-98024-8

1-107-47175-3

1-107-46805-1

1-107-47273-3

OCLC:

862614419