Opera As Drama - Hardcover

Kerman, Joseph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520062736 ISBN 13: 9780520062733

Publisher: University of California Press, 1988

Synopsis

"Throughout the history of opera, if not quite continuously, there have been some who have taken opera's dramatic potential seriously and others who have not. It seems to be the case that over the last thirty years Opera as Drama has helped keep the serious position alive. I hope it will continue to do so in this new edition."--From the foreword to the new editionPassionate, witty, brilliant, Opera as Drama, although published over thirty years ago, remains one of the most controversial, thought-provoking, and entertaining works of operatic criticism ever written. For this new edition, the first since the book's original publication, the author has prepared a new foreword and provided emendations and additions that take into account some of the critical reaction to the book. He has also added a new chapter on operatic criticism. Updated yet still retaining the verve of the original, this new edition will be indispensable reading for all students and lovers

About this title

From the Back Cover:

PRAISE FOR THE PREVIOUS EDITIONS: "If you are for opera, this book is for you."--"New York Times Book Review"The most influential recent book on opera criticism. . . in the English-speaking world"--"New Grove Dictionary of Opera"Affords the serious reader and listener an absorbing encounter with a sensitive and superbly trained intelligence in the act of thinking about music and music criticism. . . . We come away remembering the sound of Kerman's prose voice, mellifluous, elegant, eminently civilized, beneath its cool control a ground bass of urgent feeling."--"San Francisco Chronicle Book Review"The author's clarity and pungency...make for enjoyable, challenging reading. It is a collection that can tease the person who is primarily interested in opera into wanting to explore the song literature of the English Renaissance or to listen more knowledgeably to Mozart's piano concertos and Beethoven's symphonies."--William Ashbrook, "Opera Quarterly ""Kerman's musicological activity is technical without neglecting the importance of text, cultural context, meaning, expression, and value, and is likely to appeal to educated lay people.... Kerman's scholarship is careful and sensitive, and often subtle and witty. Yet this subtle scholarship has evoked strong and widespread reaction and provided significant leadership within musicology and beyond."--Renee Cox Lorraine, "Notes ""Lucid, lively.... Many aspects of his work can provide inspiration."--Oliver Neighbour, "Music and Letters"

From the Inside Flap:

"Intemperate, insightful, argumentative, outrageous, brilliant: Joe Kerman's Opera as Drama continues to provoke and enlighten. There is really nothing quite like it."—Philip Gossett

"Opera as Drama is, in my reading, the best book on opera in English. It's splendidly intelligent and opinionated."—Paul Robinson, author of Opera & Ideas

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0520062736
• ISBN 13: 9780520062733
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240