Opera

Contents

• Introduction
• Part I :
• 1. Pre-operatic forms
• 2. First operatic forms: Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Keiser
• 3. Formalization
• 4. Reform - the reintegration of elements
• 5. Comedy and the 'real world'
• 6. 'Authentic' performance
• Part II :
• 7. Romanticism and romantic opera in Germany
• 8. Opera in nineteenth-century Italy
• 9. Grand Opera and the visual language of opera
• 10. The Wagnerian revolution
• 11. Nationalists: vernacular language and music
• 12. The role of the singer
• Part III :
• 13. The turn of the century and the crisis in opera
• 14. First modernism: symbolist and expressionist opera
• 15. The dramaturgy of opera: libretto - words and structure
• 16. Narrative opera: realistic and non-realistic
• 17. Radical narratives
• 18. Directors and the direction of opera
• Appendices: 1. Motifs from Der Ring
• 2. The development of singing voices
• 3. The development of lyric theatre alternatives to 'opera'
• 4. Some major operas, artistic and political events of the twentieth century
• Glossary of terms
• Bibliography.