DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Verdi and the Art of Italian Opera

Conventions and Creativity

Steven Huebner author Steven Huebner translator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Published:5th Dec '23

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Verdi and the Art of Italian Opera cover

A long-needed and up-to-date overview of the syntax and principles that make Verdi's operas so effective and so beloved today. Verdi's art emerged from a rich array of dramatic and musical practices operative in the Italy of his day. Drawing the reader into his creative world, this study (translated from the French original by the author himself) begins where Verdi began when it came time to set notes to paper: the libretto. Designed for the non-Italophone reader, Steven Huebner's Verdi and the Art of Italian Opera explains key principles of Italian poetry that shaped his music. From there, Huebner outlines the various musical textures available to the composer, including an exploration of the characteristics of recitative and aria. Working outward, subsequent chapters explore the syntax of Verdi's melodic writing and the larger-level forms that he used. A concluding chapter considers ways of conceiving musical unity in his operas.

ISBN: 9781648250408

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 546g

332 pages