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In this classic biography of composer Giuseppe Verdi, Frank Walker reveals Verdi the man through his connections with the individuals who knew him best. “Walker focuses on some of the more significant people in Verdi’s life and carefully scrutinizes his relationships with them. His wife, Giuseppina Strepponi; his student and amanuensis, Emanuele Muzio; the conductor who first fully understood Verdi’s mature art, Angelo Mariani; the great prima donna, Teresa Stolz; the incomparable librettist and friend of his old age, Arrigo Boito—each passes before our eyes in Walker’s meticulous reconstruction. As we learn more about them, we learn more about Verdi. We see him through the eyes of his closest friends, we watch his daily activities, his daily thoughts, his habits, his warmth, his domestic tyranny. The myth dissolves and a human being stands before us.”—Philip Gossett, from the introduction
Italy possesses two literary canons, one in the Tuscan language and the other made up of the various dialects of its many regions. The Other Italy presents for the first time an overview of the principal authors and texts of Italy's literary canon in dialect. It highlights the cultivated dialect poetry, drama, and narrative prose since the codification of the Tuscan literary language in the early sixteenth century, when writing in dialect became a deliberate and conscious alternative to the official literary standard. The book offers a panorama of the literary dialects of Italy over five centuries and across the country's regions, shedding light on a profoundly plurilingual and polycentric civilization. As a guide to reading and research, it provides a compendium of literary sources in dialect, arranged by region and accompanied by syntheses of regional traditions with selected textual illustrations. A work of extraordinary importance, The Other Italy was awarded the Modern Language Association of America's Aldo and Jean Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies. It will serve scholars as an indispensable resource book for years to come.
This book addresses the interplay between collaboration and resistance during the Revolutionary/Napoleonic era in the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, renamed States of Parma in 1802 and Department of Taro in 1808. Considered no more than a docile backwater in 1796, the country exploded in violent rebellion at the end of 1805, to the astonishment of the French imperial establishment and of Napoleon himself. Yet, the insurgency – duly suppressed by the French military – did not beget further confrontation. French administrators determined to demonstrate that the empire was a force for good and local citizens compelled to reassess their circumstances realistically settled for cooperation in the form of protracted give and take arrangements. In recounting the events, this book highlights local agency and the myriad ways Parma’s population harnessed the power of empire to shape what eventually became the Napoleonic legacy in the region.