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On July 14, 1789, a crowd of angry French citizens en route to the Bastille broke into the Paris Opera and helped themselves to any sturdy weapon they could find. Yet despite its long association with the royal court, its special privileges, and the splendor of its performances, the Opera itself was spared, even protected, by Revolutionary officials. Victoria Johnson’s Backstage at the Revolution tells the story of how this legendary opera house, despite being a lightning rod for charges of tyranny and waste, weathered the most dramatic political upheaval in European history. Sifting through royal edicts, private letters, and Revolutionary records of all kinds, Johnson uncovers the roots o...
Are there wines to rival the greatest first-growths of Bordeaux and the grand crus of Burgundy? Robert Parker’s answer is a resounding Yes—they are to be found among the finest wines of the Rhone Valley. With this new edition of Wines of the Rhone Valley, Robert Parker, the world’s most influential wine critic, provides the key to enjoying the winemaking world’s best-kept secret. The area contains the oldest vineyards in France—indeed the heyday of some of the Rhone Valley wines was 2,000 years ago, around the time of the Roman conquest of France. In recent centuries, these wines have been misunderstood and ignored—and consequently undervalued. All of which means that some of the...
In 34 papers, authors draw on research and firsthand field experience in many parts of the world to explore the use of hunger as a political weapon. They also discuss strategies to counter inequitable food distribution in such situations, consider the role of humanitarian organizations, and review policies that could be used to combat hunger. Action Against Hunger is an international organization, founded in 1979 in France, that works to assist victims of human- made famines. This book is the group's second report on global issues of hunger. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR
This volume brings together ten essays focusing on the diversity of operatic institutions, their protagonists, and historical fortunes in Europe from 1730 to 1917. Its aim is not to understand operatic institutions as locally distinct and isolated organizations, but rather to perceive them as a part of a historically fluctuating, transnational network: a network that was shaped among other things by individual professionals and groups in the opera business (and beyond), as well as by specific socio-cultural and political surroundings. The volume offers new perspectives on a wide range of topics, including networks of cultural exchange, singers as agents in shaping institutional structures, and the influence of socio-cultural, diplomatic, and political factors on operatic production across international borders.
With a particular focus on the court ballet, comedy-ballet, opera, and opera-ballet, Georgia J. Cowart tells the long-neglected story of how the festive arts deployed an intricate network of subversive satire to undermine the rhetoric of sovereign authority.
During the course of the 17th century, the dramatic arts reached a pinnacle of development in France; but despite the volumes devoted to the literature and theatre of the ancien régime, historians have largely neglected the importance of music and dance. This study defines the musical practices of comedy, tragicomedy, tragedy, and mythological and non-mythological pastoral drama, from the arrival of the first repertory companies in Paris until the establishment of the Comédie-Française.