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A short history of opera

Front Cover
4 Reviews
Columbia University Press, 2003 - Music - 1030 pages

When first published in 1947, "A Short History of Opera" immediately achieved international status as a classic in the field. Now, more than five decades later, this thoroughly revised and expanded fourth edition informs and entertains opera lovers just as its predecessors have.

The fourth edition incorporates new scholarship that traces the most important developments in the evolution of musical drama. After surveying anticipations of the operatic form in the lyric theater of the Greeks, medieval dramatic music, and other forerunners, the book reveals the genre's beginnings in the seventeenth century and follows its progress to the present day.

"A Short History of Opera" examines not only the standard performance repertoire, but also works considered important for the genre's development. Its expanded scope investigates opera from Eastern European countries and Finland. The section on twentieth-century opera has been reorganized around national operatic traditions including a chapter devoted solely to opera in the United States, which incorporates material on the American musical and ties between classical opera and popular musical theater. A separate section on Chinese opera is also included.

With an extensive multilanguage bibliography, more than one hundred musical examples, and stage illustrations, this authoritative one-volume survey will be invaluable to students and serious opera buffs. New fans will also find it highly accessible and informative. Extremely thorough in its coverage, "A Short History of Opera" is now more than ever the book to turn to for anyone who wants to know about the history of this art form.

  

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Review: A Short History of Opera

User Review  - Cordelia - Goodreads

I read this for a class, but I think it would be an excellent reference book for any opera enthusiast to read a chapter or two before seeing something new. I do not recommend trying to read it through ... Read full review

Review: A Short History of Opera

User Review  - Kathleen - Goodreads

As a reference book, this Grout/Williams text can be a good addition to a musician/scholar's bookshelf; however, as a classroom textbook I do not recommend it. While I am in no doubt that the research ... Read full review

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Contents

The lyric Theater of the Greeks
9
Medieval Dramatic Music
13
The Immediate Forerunners of Opera
21
The Seventeenth Century
39
The BeginningsOpera in Florence and Mantua
41
Other Early SeventeenthCentury Italian Court Operas including the First Comic Operas in Florence and Rome
60
Italian Opera in the Later Seventeenth Century in Italy
83
SeventeenthCentury Italian Opera in GermanSpeaking Lands
107
Grand Opera
353
Opera Comique Operetta and Lyric Opera
369
Italian Opera of the Primo Ottocentro Rossini DonizettiVerdi and Their Contemporaries
383
The Romantic Opera in Germany
417
The Operas of Wagner
436
The Later Nineteenth Century FranceItalyGermany and Austria
473
Other National Traditions of Opera from the Seventeenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries
505
National Traditions of Opera
507

Early German Opera
121
Opera in France from Lully to Charpentier
132
Opera in England
147
The Eighteenth Century
163
Masters of the Early Eighteenth Century
165
Opera Seria General Characteristics
203
Opera Seria The Composers
225
The Operas of Gluck
253
The Comic Opera of the Eighteenth Century
272
The Operas of Mozart and His Viennese Contemporaries
305
The Nineteenth Century
333
The Turn of the Century
335
The Twentieth Century
575
IntroductionOpera in France and Italy
577
Opera in the GermanSpeaking Countries
611
National Opera in Russia and Neighboring Countries Central and Eastern Europe Greece and Turkeythe Netherlands Denmark Sweden and Finland S...
662
Opera in the British Isles Canada Australia and New Zealand
708
Opera in the United States
729
Appendix
787
Abbreviations
795
Bibliography
797
Sources and Translations of Musical Examples
897
Index
911
Copyright

Other editions - View all

A Short History of Opera
A Short History of Opera
Donald Grout,Donald Jay Grout,Hermine Weigel Williams
Limited preview - 2003
A short history of opera
A short history of opera, Volume 2
Donald Jay Grout
Snippet view - 1947
A Short History of Opera
A Short History of Opera, Volume 2
Donald Jay Grout
Snippet view - 1965
View all »

Common terms and phrases

accompanied Alessandro Scarlatti arias audiences ballet Baroque bass capo characters choral chorus comedy comic opera composition court dance Donizetti dramatic duet early Edited eighteenth century English ensembles example final Francesco French opera German opera Giovanni Gluck grand opera Handel harmony important influence instrumental intermezzos Italian opera Italy later Leipzig librettist libretto London Lully lyrical melody Metastasio Metropolitan Opera Monteverdi motifs Mozart music dramas musical style Musik nineteenth century one-act opera buffa opera comique opera composers opera seria operetta orchestra Orfeo overture Paris performed play popular premiere production recitative repertoire revised revival rhythms Richard Strauss ritornello role Romantic Russian Scarlatti scene seventeenth singers singing Singspiel solo songs spoken dialogue stage story Strauss successful sung symphonic theater themes tion Tlie tonal tradition Translation University Press Venice Vienna vocal voice vols Wagner Wozzeck writing York York City Opera zarzuela

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References from web pages

A Short History of Opera
When first published in 1947, A Short History of Opera immediately achieved international status as a classic in the field. Now, more than five decades ...
cup.columbia.edu/ book/ 978-0-231-11958-0/ a-short-history-of-opera

JSTOR: A Short History of Opera
The results of his painstaking researches are embodied in a survey which he cautiously calls A Short History of Opera. It is at once a straightforward, ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0027-4631(194804)34%3A2%3C294%3AASHOO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S

800.995.2300 312.944.1448 fax info@iesabroad.org MS350 HISTORY OF ...
Grout, A Short History of Opera, pp. 171-182; 189-201; 208-291; 317-336. ... A Short History of Opera. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. ...
www.iesabroad.org/ export/ sites/ default/ resources/ pdf/ Programs/ Italy/ Milan/ milan-ms-350.pdf

Opera in German - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parker, pp.31-32; A Short History of Opera, chapter on "Early German Opera", ... Oxford Illustrated History of Opera pp.212-217; A Short History of Opera, ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ German_opera

ebscohost Connection: A Short Story of Opera.
Education: The article reviews the book "A Short History of Opera," by Donald Jay ... Abstract: The article reviews the book "A Short History of Opera," by ...
connection.ebscohost.com/ content/ article/ 1041298732.html;jsessionid=D1A404F4F0CA850B7BE200E2B85FA34D.ehctc1

kbh083 Books
A Short History of Opera is perhaps one of the best known and most widely cir-. culated texts on the history of this art form. Now in its fourth edition, ...
oq.oxfordjournals.org/ cgi/ reprint/ 20/ 4/ 734.pdf

Opera
A Short History of Opera (Grout) REF ML1700.G83 2003 This excellent history contains many musical examples, along with an extensive bibliography. ...
library.wichita.edu/ music/ Opera.htm

Donald Jay Grout: books by Donald Jay Grout @ bookfinder.com
More editions of A Short History of Opera:. A Short History of Opera: Hardcover, Columbia Univ Pr, ISBN 0231061927 (0-231-06192-7) ...
www.bookfinder.com/ author/ donald-jay-grout/

Department of Music
Grout, Donald Jay, A Short History of Opera, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University. Press, 1965). Hawkins, Stan, ‘“I’ll Never Be an Angel”: Stories of ...
www.wlv.ac.uk/ lib/ Tipsheets/ MusicRef.pdf

theatrebooks -- Opera
When first published in 1947, A Short History of Opera immediately achieved international status as a classic in the field. Now, more than five decades ...
www.theatrebooks.com/ opera/ index.html

About the author (2003)

Donald Jay Grout was, until his death in 1987, Given Foundation Professor of Musicology Emeritus at Cornell University. He was author of the classic A History of Western Music,and Alessandro Scarlatti: An Introduction to His Operas,as well as general editor of The Operas of Alessandro Scarlatti.

Hermine Weigel Williams is Scholar-in Residence at Hamilton College. She has contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Music, The Operas of Alessandro Scarlatti,and The Symphony: 1720--1840.She is author of Francesco Bartolomeo Conti: His Life and Music, Sibelius and His Masonic Music,and co-author of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: A Guide to Research.She is also co-editor of Facts Behind the Songs: A Handbook of American Popular Music from the Nineties to the 90's.

Bibliographic information

QR code for A short history of opera
TitleA short history of opera
Classical music reference library
AuthorsDonald Jay Grout, Hermine Weigel. Williams
Edition4, illustrated
PublisherColumbia University Press, 2003
ISBN0231119585, 9780231119580
Length1030 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Music / Genres & Styles / Opera
  
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