Not without madness
Subtitle: perspectives on opera
By: Fabrizio Della Seta ; translated by Mark Weir
Contributors: Weir, Mark, translator
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Chicago; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 303
ISBN-13: 9780226749143; 9780226749167
Subjects: Opera; Criticism and interpretation
Work titles: Non senza pazzia
Description: In these 12 essays, the author explores the concept of opera as a dramatic event and an essential moment in the history of theatre. Examining the meaning of opera and the devices that produce and transmit this meaning, he looks at the complex verbal, musical and scenic mechanisms in parts of 'La Sonnambula', 'Ernani', 'Aida', 'Le Nozze di Figaro', 'Macbeth' and 'Il Trovatore'. He argues that approaches to the study of opera must address performance, interpretation, composition, reception, and cultural ramifications.
Notes: Originally published in Italian as: "...Non senza pazzia" : prospettive sul teatro musicale. Rome : Carocci editore, 2008.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Theory and analysis. Emotion and action : on the theory of Italian opera ; Ernani : the "Carlo Quinto" act ; "O cieli azzurri" : exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida ; What "happens" in the act 2 finale of Le nozze di Figaro? ; The death of King Duncan : from Shakespeare to Verdi, via the French Revolution ; "D'amor sull'ali rosee" : analyzing melody and the creative process; title: History and criticism. Some difficulties in the historiography of Italian opera ; Verdi : the Italian tradition and the European experience ; Meyerbeer in nineteenth-century Italian criticism and the idea of "musical drama" ; Alberto Mazzucato and the beginnings of Italian Verdi criticism ; Parola scenica in Verdi and his critics ; Gabriele Baldini on Verdi : a theory of opera.