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Bizet's Carmen is probably the best known opera of the standard repertoire, yet its very familiarity often prevents us from approaching it with the seriousness it deserves. This handbook explores the opera in a number of contexts, bringing to the surface the controversies over gender, race, class and musical propriety that greeted its premiere and that have been rekindled by the recent spate of film versions. Beginning with a study of the Mérimée story by Peter Robinson and an examination of the social tensions in nineteenth-century France that inform both that story and the opera, the book traces the latter through its genesis and reception. The central core of the book presents a close reading of the opera that offers new interpretive possibilities. The handbook concludes with discussions of four films based on the opera: Carmen Jones and the versions of Carmen by Carlos Saura, Peter Brook, and Francesco Rosi. The volume contains a bibliography, music examples, and a synopsis.
This wonderfully spontaneous evocation of a glamorous Proustian world reads like a detective story.
Eunice Lipton was a fledging art historian when she first became intrigued by Victorine Meurent, the nineteenth-century model who appeared in Edouard Manet's most famous paintings, only to vanish from history in a haze of degrading hearsay. But had this bold and spirited beauty really descended into prostitution, drunkenness, and early death-or did her life, hidden from history, take a different course altogether? Eunice Lipton's search for the answer combines the suspense of a detective story with the revelatory power of art, peeling off layers of lies to reveal startling truths about Victorine Meurent-and about Lipton herself.
Revolutionary Imagination: The Poetry and Politics of John Wheelwright and Sherry Mangan
Presents selected correspondence from the French novelist, which details his life as a dutiful son and socialite, and reveals his signature ideas about life, art, and character, which appear as major themes in his masterpiece.
According to Carol Rigolot, reading the work of Nobel Prize-winning poet Saint-John Perse (1887-1975) is not unlike eavesdropping on a telephone conversation in which only one side is audible. His poems are antiphonal, and even polyphonic, works where int
This is a comprehensive critical study of the nineteenth-century French grand opéra La Juive, by Halévy.
Lindbergh was the first solo pilot to cross the Atlantic non-stop from New York to Paris, in 1927. This awe-inspiring fight made him the most celebrated men of his day-a romantic symbol of the new aviation age. However, tragedy struck in 1932, where his baby was kidnapped and found dead. The unbearable trial forced Lindbergh into exile in England and France. However, his soon fasciation and involvement with the Nazi regime, resulted in public opinion turning against him. His life was at the forefront of pioneering research in aeronautics and rocketry. Also, his wife became one of the century's leading feminist voices. This biography explores the golden couple who have been considered American royalty.
This rich and revelatory biography of Lincoln Kirstein, cofounder of the New York City Ballet and School of American Ballet, is filled with fascinating incidents and perceptions, and is being published for Kirstein's centenary. photos.
Recognized as the primary American symphonist of the 20th century, Roger Sessions (1896-1985) is one of the leading representatives of high modernism. His stature among American composers rivals Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and Elliott Carter. Sessions was awarded two Pulitzer prizes, election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, winning the Brandeis Creative Arts Award, the Gold Medal of the American Academy, and a MacDowell Medal, in addition to 14 honorary doctorates. Roger Sessions: A Biography brings together considerable previously unpublished archival material, such as letters, lectures, interviews, and articles, to shed light on the life and music of this major American composer. Andrea Olmstead, a teaching colleague of Sessions at Juilliard and the leading scholar on his music, has written a complete biography charting five touchstone areas through Sessions’s eighty-eight years: music, religion, politics, money, and sexuality.