| Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera: A History Contributor(s): Harris-Warrick, Rebecca (Author) |
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ISBN: 1316502783 ISBN-13: 9781316502785 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $49.39 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Music | Genres & Styles - Opera |
| Series: Cambridge Studies in Opera |
| Physical Information: 1.02" H x 7.44" W x 9.69" (1.97 lbs) 504 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Since its inception, French opera has embraced dance, yet all too often operatic dancing is treated as mere decoration. Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera exposes the multiple and meaningful roles that dance has played, starting from Jean-Baptiste Lully's first opera in 1672. It counters prevailing notions in operatic historiography that dance was parenthetical and presents compelling evidence that the divertissement - present in every act of every opera - is essential to understanding the work. The book considers the operas of Lully - his lighter works as well as his tragedies - and the 46-year period between the death of Lully and the arrival of Rameau, when influences from the commedia dell'arte and other theatres began to inflect French operatic practices. It explores the intersections of musical, textual, choreographic and staging practices at a complex institution - the Acad mie Royale de Musique - which upheld as a fundamental aesthetic principle the integration of dance into opera. |
Contributor Bio(s): Harris-Warrick, Rebecca: - Rebecca Harris-Warrick is Professor of Music at Cornell University, New York. She has published widely on French Baroque music and dance, with excursions into nineteenth-century opera, and has prepared critical editions of ballets by Lully and of Donizetti's opera, La Favorite. Much of her scholarly work has been informed by her interests in performance; she has studied early dance and performed as a Baroque flutist. She serves on the editorial boards for the Les Oeuvres complètes de Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Journal of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. |