Larry Hamberlin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195338928
- eISBN:
- 9780199855865
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338928.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Opera, Popular
Of all operatic characters, the most influential on American popular culture was Cho-Cho-San, the title character of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. This chapter surveys the large repertoire of ...
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Of all operatic characters, the most influential on American popular culture was Cho-Cho-San, the title character of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. This chapter surveys the large repertoire of Butterfly songs, which, like the opera, allegorize the United States' flexing of imperialistic muscle in the Far East as a love story between a powerful American man and a powerless Japanese woman. Unlike the opera, these popular songs, of which “Poor Butterfly” emerges as the most important, explore a wide range of alternative readings of that allegory, from validating Pinkerton as hero, not villain, to empowering Cho-Cho-San.Less
Of all operatic characters, the most influential on American popular culture was Cho-Cho-San, the title character of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. This chapter surveys the large repertoire of Butterfly songs, which, like the opera, allegorize the United States' flexing of imperialistic muscle in the Far East as a love story between a powerful American man and a powerless Japanese woman. Unlike the opera, these popular songs, of which “Poor Butterfly” emerges as the most important, explore a wide range of alternative readings of that allegory, from validating Pinkerton as hero, not villain, to empowering Cho-Cho-San.
Richard Leppert
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230099
- eISBN:
- 9780823235445
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230099.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter focuses on the David Belasco work, The Girl of the Golden West. This was seen on its first peformance by Giacomo Puccini in 1907, while he was on his visit to New York. Puccini was ...
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This chapter focuses on the David Belasco work, The Girl of the Golden West. This was seen on its first peformance by Giacomo Puccini in 1907, while he was on his visit to New York. Puccini was searching for his next project when he saw the play of Belasco. Belasco specialized in melodrama emphasizing naturalism. The Girl of the Golden West is about a young woman living in a mining camp mostly populated by men. The setting of Belasco's play and Puccini's opera are situated within the Sierra Nevada mountains. Their works sparked the modernist ideologies which governed the civilizing process. Lastly, the two envisioned the time–space relations.Less
This chapter focuses on the David Belasco work, The Girl of the Golden West. This was seen on its first peformance by Giacomo Puccini in 1907, while he was on his visit to New York. Puccini was searching for his next project when he saw the play of Belasco. Belasco specialized in melodrama emphasizing naturalism. The Girl of the Golden West is about a young woman living in a mining camp mostly populated by men. The setting of Belasco's play and Puccini's opera are situated within the Sierra Nevada mountains. Their works sparked the modernist ideologies which governed the civilizing process. Lastly, the two envisioned the time–space relations.
Roger Parker
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520244184
- eISBN:
- 9780520931787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520244184.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on Italian composer Luciano Berio's work on the ending of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot. It compares Berio's composition with that of Franco Alfano who first completed the ...
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This chapter focuses on Italian composer Luciano Berio's work on the ending of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot. It compares Berio's composition with that of Franco Alfano who first completed the opera which received its first performance in April 1926. It suggests that while Alfano's completion of Turandot can certainly be accused of straying from Puccinian practice, Berio's ending is a much bolder departure at almost every level.Less
This chapter focuses on Italian composer Luciano Berio's work on the ending of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot. It compares Berio's composition with that of Franco Alfano who first completed the opera which received its first performance in April 1926. It suggests that while Alfano's completion of Turandot can certainly be accused of straying from Puccinian practice, Berio's ending is a much bolder departure at almost every level.
Boris Gasparov
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300106503
- eISBN:
- 9780300133165
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300106503.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter examines Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. It discusses how the opera became a tangible presence in the culture of European modernism. It also explains that it took time for ...
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This chapter examines Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. It discusses how the opera became a tangible presence in the culture of European modernism. It also explains that it took time for Mussorgsky's innovative dramatic design to be adapted in Western theater and it was Giacomo Puccini's Turandot that introduced a Musorgskian unruly crowd to the Western musical drama.Less
This chapter examines Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. It discusses how the opera became a tangible presence in the culture of European modernism. It also explains that it took time for Mussorgsky's innovative dramatic design to be adapted in Western theater and it was Giacomo Puccini's Turandot that introduced a Musorgskian unruly crowd to the Western musical drama.
Pierluigi Petrobelli and Roger Parker
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264348
- eISBN:
- 9780191734250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264348.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Julian Medford Budden (1924–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was the finest scholar of nineteenth-century Italian opera of his generation. He will be remembered for his achievements as a ...
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Julian Medford Budden (1924–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was the finest scholar of nineteenth-century Italian opera of his generation. He will be remembered for his achievements as a producer at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), for his broadcasts and reviews, and above all for his books on Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. Indeed, his passing leaves a huge gap in the field of opera studies. Budden was born in Hoylake, near Liverpool, on April 9, 1924, the only child of Lionel Budden and Maud Budden. In 1951 he started at the BBC, where he remained for his entire working life. Budden's first post was as a clerk and script editor; he then rose through the ranks to become a producer, Chief Producer of Opera, and finally External Services Music Organizer. Two aspects of Budden's background were likely to have been fundamental to his scholarly achievement: his exposure to Classics at Oxford University and his career in BBC Radio.Less
Julian Medford Budden (1924–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was the finest scholar of nineteenth-century Italian opera of his generation. He will be remembered for his achievements as a producer at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), for his broadcasts and reviews, and above all for his books on Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. Indeed, his passing leaves a huge gap in the field of opera studies. Budden was born in Hoylake, near Liverpool, on April 9, 1924, the only child of Lionel Budden and Maud Budden. In 1951 he started at the BBC, where he remained for his entire working life. Budden's first post was as a clerk and script editor; he then rose through the ranks to become a producer, Chief Producer of Opera, and finally External Services Music Organizer. Two aspects of Budden's background were likely to have been fundamental to his scholarly achievement: his exposure to Classics at Oxford University and his career in BBC Radio.
Gundula Kreuzer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520279681
- eISBN:
- 9780520966550
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520279681.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
First imported to Europe in the 1780s, Chinese gongs (or tam-tams) are shown in this chapter to have migrated between commerce, science, theater, orchestra, technology, and stage prop. Their novel ...
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First imported to Europe in the 1780s, Chinese gongs (or tam-tams) are shown in this chapter to have migrated between commerce, science, theater, orchestra, technology, and stage prop. Their novel sound effect was adopted into opera in London and Paris for a range of music-dramatic situations that are discussed here as “gong topoi.” Yet the tam-tam’s unusually loud, non-pitched resonance challenged conceptions of musical tone, while its European dissemination required either costly imports or metallurgical experiments. By midcentury, Berlioz and Wagner were experimenting with more subtle playing techniques that might enhance their orchestration while masking the instrument’s metallic timbre. Less nuanced, the chapter proposes, were the theater practitioners who gratuitously struck the gong to enhance climaxes or cover stage noises, rendering it an all-purpose sound technology. Puccini’s Turandot consummated the tam-tam as audiovisual prop. Its loudness was subsequently reconciled with musical aesthetics in twentieth-century music, both popular and avant-garde.Less
First imported to Europe in the 1780s, Chinese gongs (or tam-tams) are shown in this chapter to have migrated between commerce, science, theater, orchestra, technology, and stage prop. Their novel sound effect was adopted into opera in London and Paris for a range of music-dramatic situations that are discussed here as “gong topoi.” Yet the tam-tam’s unusually loud, non-pitched resonance challenged conceptions of musical tone, while its European dissemination required either costly imports or metallurgical experiments. By midcentury, Berlioz and Wagner were experimenting with more subtle playing techniques that might enhance their orchestration while masking the instrument’s metallic timbre. Less nuanced, the chapter proposes, were the theater practitioners who gratuitously struck the gong to enhance climaxes or cover stage noises, rendering it an all-purpose sound technology. Puccini’s Turandot consummated the tam-tam as audiovisual prop. Its loudness was subsequently reconciled with musical aesthetics in twentieth-century music, both popular and avant-garde.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804760836
- eISBN:
- 9780804772549
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804760836.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This chapter examines the stock Bohemian settings and plots in American literature and art. It explores how novels, dramas, and city sketches recycled and recontextualized Henri Murger's Scenes, ...
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This chapter examines the stock Bohemian settings and plots in American literature and art. It explores how novels, dramas, and city sketches recycled and recontextualized Henri Murger's Scenes, which culminated in the “Trilbymania” of the 1890s and the revival of Murger in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, performed for the first time in New York in 1898. All of these narratives imply that living in Bohemia is like living with the utmost intensity and spirit. Moreover, they reveal the different social conflicts that “Bohemia” continued to chart and negotiate: Bohemian plots often deal with overlapping tensions between artists and “Philistines,” propriety and license, wealth and poverty, men and women, art and life, “feminine Bohemianism” and traditional womanhood, and America and Europe. The chapter highlights these conflicts and analyzes canonical texts such as Henry James's The Ambassadors (1903), along with numerous stories, sketches, and popular novels.Less
This chapter examines the stock Bohemian settings and plots in American literature and art. It explores how novels, dramas, and city sketches recycled and recontextualized Henri Murger's Scenes, which culminated in the “Trilbymania” of the 1890s and the revival of Murger in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, performed for the first time in New York in 1898. All of these narratives imply that living in Bohemia is like living with the utmost intensity and spirit. Moreover, they reveal the different social conflicts that “Bohemia” continued to chart and negotiate: Bohemian plots often deal with overlapping tensions between artists and “Philistines,” propriety and license, wealth and poverty, men and women, art and life, “feminine Bohemianism” and traditional womanhood, and America and Europe. The chapter highlights these conflicts and analyzes canonical texts such as Henry James's The Ambassadors (1903), along with numerous stories, sketches, and popular novels.
Maya Plisetskaya
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300088571
- eISBN:
- 9780300130713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300088571.003.0046
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
In this chapter, Maya Plisetskaya focuses on her time in Spain, where she worked as head of the National Ballet of Madrid's classical troupe. Prior to the invitation, Maya danced Anna Karenina and ...
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In this chapter, Maya Plisetskaya focuses on her time in Spain, where she worked as head of the National Ballet of Madrid's classical troupe. Prior to the invitation, Maya danced Anna Karenina and Carmen Suite in Spain with the Odessa Theater and then The Seagull, Lady with the Dog, and solo numbers with a splinter group of the Bolshoi Ballet. Her Spanish ballet was successful in Spain and earned her a second invitation. When José Manuel Garrido, deputy minister of culture of Spain, came to Moscow, he asked Maya if she wanted to lead the classical troupe of the National Ballet of Madrid. In Spain, she was attracted by the works of José Granero and danced the opera-ballet Le Villi by Giacomo Puccini.Less
In this chapter, Maya Plisetskaya focuses on her time in Spain, where she worked as head of the National Ballet of Madrid's classical troupe. Prior to the invitation, Maya danced Anna Karenina and Carmen Suite in Spain with the Odessa Theater and then The Seagull, Lady with the Dog, and solo numbers with a splinter group of the Bolshoi Ballet. Her Spanish ballet was successful in Spain and earned her a second invitation. When José Manuel Garrido, deputy minister of culture of Spain, came to Moscow, he asked Maya if she wanted to lead the classical troupe of the National Ballet of Madrid. In Spain, she was attracted by the works of José Granero and danced the opera-ballet Le Villi by Giacomo Puccini.
George Shirley
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036781
- eISBN:
- 9780252093890
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036781.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
In this chapter, the author reflects on the issue of race in opera and its impact on black singers. He first recounts his European operatic debut in Milan in 1960, singing the role of Rodolfo in ...
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In this chapter, the author reflects on the issue of race in opera and its impact on black singers. He first recounts his European operatic debut in Milan in 1960, singing the role of Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, and how his performance prompted numerous references to “il Rodolfo nero”(“The black Rodolfo”) in many Italian newspapers. The author reveals how blackness has figured in his theater performances since he entered the singing profession, including those with the Scottish Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. He notes that black singers of opera remain minorities in the profession numerically and racially; they are rarely, if ever, selected to interpret white roles in operas that focus on life in contemporary white society. He concludes by saying that he will not discourage young black singers from following their dreams of singing the great roles, and that the profession must respect what the artist brings vocally, musically, and dramatically as well as the opera-loving public's voracious appetite for great singing.Less
In this chapter, the author reflects on the issue of race in opera and its impact on black singers. He first recounts his European operatic debut in Milan in 1960, singing the role of Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, and how his performance prompted numerous references to “il Rodolfo nero”(“The black Rodolfo”) in many Italian newspapers. The author reveals how blackness has figured in his theater performances since he entered the singing profession, including those with the Scottish Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. He notes that black singers of opera remain minorities in the profession numerically and racially; they are rarely, if ever, selected to interpret white roles in operas that focus on life in contemporary white society. He concludes by saying that he will not discourage young black singers from following their dreams of singing the great roles, and that the profession must respect what the artist brings vocally, musically, and dramatically as well as the opera-loving public's voracious appetite for great singing.
