Author : Philip Gossett
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226304876
Total Pages : 796 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)
Book Synopsis Divas and Scholars by : Philip Gossett
Download or read book Divas and Scholars written by Philip Gossett and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-05-30 with total page 796 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Divas and Scholars" is a dazzling and beguiling account of how opera comes to the stage, filled with Philip Gossett's personal experiences of triumphant - and even failed - performances and suffused with his towering passion for music. Gossett, the world's leading authority on the performance of Italian opera, brings to life the problems, and occasionally the scandals, that attend the production of some of our favorite operas.Gossett begins by tracing the social history of nineteenth-century Italian theaters in order to explain the nature of the musical scores from which performers have long worked. He then illuminates the often hidden but crucial negotiations between what is written and how it is interpreted by opera conductors and performers.