The Politics of Opera : A History from Monteverdi to Mozart / Mitchell Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Mitchell, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Opera--Political aspects--History.

Opera.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (511 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A wide-ranging look at the interplay of opera and political ideas through the centuriesThe Politics of Opera takes readers on a fascinating journey into the entwined development of opera and politics, from the Renaissance through the turn of the nineteenth century. What political backdrops have shaped opera? How has opera conveyed the political ideas of its times? Delving into European history and thought and an array of music by such greats as Lully, Rameau, and Mozart, Mitchell Cohen reveals how politics-through story lines, symbols, harmonies, and musical motifs-has played an operatic role both robust and sotto voce.Cohen begins with opera's emergence under Medici absolutism in Florence during the late Renaissance-where debates by humanists, including Galileo's father, led to the first operas in the late sixteenth century. Taking readers to Mantua and Venice, where composer Claudio Monteverdi flourished, Cohen examines how early operatic works like Orfeo used mythology to reflect on governance and policy issues of the day, such as state jurisdictions and immigration. Cohen explores France in the ages of Louis XIV and the Enlightenment and Vienna before and during the French Revolution, where the deceptive lightness of Mozart's masterpieces touched on the havoc of misrule and hidden abuses of power. Cohen also looks at smaller works, including a one-act opera written and composed by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Essential characters, ancient and modern, make appearances throughout: Nero, Seneca, Machiavelli, Mazarin, Fenelon, Metastasio, Beaumarchais, Da Ponte, and many more.An engrossing book that will interest all who love opera and are intrigued by politics, The Politics of Opera offers a compelling investigation into the intersections of music and the state.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Prologue: Mixtures, Boundaries, Parallels

Acknowledgments

Part 1: Metamorphoses, ancient to Modern

Chapter 1. Who Rules?

Chapter 2. Reigning Voices

Chapter 3. Laws and Laurels

Part 2: Mantua to Venice

Chapter 4. Orpheus's Ways

Chapter 5. A Prince Decides on Naxos

Chapter 6. The Political Scenario of Monteverdi's Venice

Chapter 7. Revealing Ulysses

Chapter 8. Spectacles

Part 3: Under French Suns

Chapter 9. Agitations and Absolutes

Chapter 10. In the Winds: The Decades of Pernucio And Telemachus

Chapter 11. Vertical, Horizontal

Chapter 12. Nature and Its Discontents

Part 4: Ancients in Modernity

Chapter 13. From Elysium to Utica

Chapter 14. From Crete to Rome

Part 5: ". . . And Although I Am No Count . . ."

Chapter 15 Masters and Servants

Chapter 16. Gaits of History

Chapter 17. Looking for Enlightenment

Chapter 18. Tamino's Wonder

Appendix: "Backstage"

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781400884735

140088473X

OCLC:

993038827