The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio (Bible in the Modern World)

Leneman, Cantor Helen

ISBN 10: 1905048564 / ISBN 13: 9781905048564

Published by Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd, 2007

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9781905048564

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio (Bible in the Modern World)
• Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1905048564
• ISBN 13: 9781905048564
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The Bible and Western culture is a burgeoning area of interest in recent scholarship, but comparatively little has been written on the Bible and music. Leneman's is a groundbreaking work, making some pioneering forays across an important interdisciplinary divide. The Performed Bible is an in-depth study of the librettos and music of 12 operas and oratorios on the story of Ruth from the last two centuries, establishing the potential of music, as a kind of midrash, for transforming a Bible text, its narrative and its characterization. The book includes detailed analyses of musical segments, the author being a cantor and professional musician in whose Jewish tradition biblical texts are chanted, not read. This fresh and insightful work will no doubt prove attractive to biblical scholars, to musicians and to music lovers generally.

About the Author

Cantor Helen Leneman's specialty is bar/bat mitzvah education. She has worked as a cantor and a b'nai mitzvah teacher in Los Angeles, Baltimore and the greater Washington, DC, area. For several years she chaired the B nai Mitzvah Educators Network of CAJE. The Network has over 300 members in the U.S. and abroad. She has a BA from UCLA and an MA in Judaic studies from Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, and studied cantorial liturgy with cantors Allan Michelson (z"l) and William Sharlin. She is the author of Bar/Bat Mitzvah Education: A Sourcebook. She is an associate member of the American Conference of Cantors, and a member of the Society of Biblical Literature. Cantor Leneman directs an outreach program for unaffiliated families who wish to celebrate their children s becoming bar or bat mitzvah. She lives with her family in Rockville, Maryland.