Performing opera
Subtitle: a practical guide for singers and directors
By: by Michael Ewans
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing; Methuen Drama
Published: 2016
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9781474239080; 9781474239073
Subjects: DRAMA / General; MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Opera; Opera; PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General; Acting in opera; Production and direction
Description: "In Performing Opera: A Practical Guide for Singers and Directors Michael Ewans provides a detailed and practical workbook to performing many of the most commonly produced operas. Aimed at singers and directors as well as opera lovers, it draws on examples from twenty-four operas ranging in period from Gluck and Mozart to Britten and Tippett, to illustrate exactly how opera functions as dramatic form: how words are illuminated by the composer's music and, in turn, how the singers' movements, expressions, gestures and use of props, together with the costumes and décor, present the director's own illumination of both text and music. Grounded in close analyses of performances of thirty scenes and five whole operas by first-rate singers and celebrated directors, Performing Opera provides readers with an appreciation of the unique challenges and skills required by performers and directors. It will assist them in their own performance and equip them with detailed knowledge of works most commonly featured in the repertoire. In the first part of the book the analysis progresses from scenes in which the singers are silent, via arias and monologues, duets and confrontations, up to ensembles. Wider issues are subsequently addressed: encounters with offstage events, encounters with the numinous, characterization, and the sense of inevitability in tragic opera. Each section is supplemented by a series of discussion questions to assist students and teachers, and each chapter contains numerous examples of music and new translations of the texts for the scenes studied"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: 1. Introduction; title: PART ONE: FORMS; title: 2. Operatic music without words; title: 3. Arias and Monologues; title: 4. Duets; title: 5. Confrontations; title: 6. Ensembles; title: PART TWO: ENCOUNTERS; title: 7. Noises off; title: 8. Interactions with the numinous; title: PART THREE: SHAPING THE OPERA; title: 9. Characterization; title: 10. The Sense of Inevitability; title: 11. Conclusion; title: Endnotes; title: Bibliography; title: Discography; title: Scores; title: Index.