Limit this search to....

Not Russian Enough?: Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century Russian Opera
Contributor(s): Helmers, Rutger (Author)
ISBN: 1580465005     ISBN-13: 9781580465007
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
OUR PRICE:   $99.75  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: December 2014
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Music | Genres & Styles - Opera
- History | Modern - 19th Century
- History | Russia & The Former Soviet Union
Dewey: 782.109
LCCN: 2014029787
Series: Eastman Studies in Music
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6" W x 9.1" (1.15 lbs) 250 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 19th Century
- Cultural Region - Russia
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
In the nineteenth century, Russian composers and critics were encouraged to cultivate a national style to distinguish their music from the dominant Italian, French, and German traditions. Not Russian Enough? explores this aspiration for a nationalist musical tradition as it was carried out in the cosmopolitan world of opera. Rutger Helmers analyzes the cultural context, music, and reception of four important operas: Glinka's A Life for the Tsar (1836), Serov's Judith (1863), Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orléans (1881), and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride (1899). He discusses such issues as the influence of Italian and French opera, the use of foreign subjects, the application of local color, and the adherence to the classics, and considers how these related to a sense of "Russianness." Besides yielding new insights for each of these works, this study offers a fresh perspective on the function of nationalist thought in the nineteenth-century Russian opera world..

Rutger Helmers is assistant professor in historical musicology at the University of Amsterdam and lectures in literary and cultural studies at Radboud University Nijmegen.