Verdi With A Vengeance

Everything you could possibly know about Verdi and his operas, from the brilliant and humorous author of Wagner Without Fear. If you want to know why La traviata was actually a flop at its premiere in 1853, it's in here. If you want to know why claiming to have heard Bjorling's Chicago performance of Il trovatore is the classic opera fan faux pas, it's in here. Even if you just want to know how to pronounce Aida, or what the plot of Rigoletto is all about, this is the place to look. From the composer's intense hatred of priests to synopses of the operas and a detailed discography of the best recordings to buy, it can all be found in Verdi with a Vengeance. William Berger has given another improbable performance, serving up a book as thorough as it is funny and as original as it is astute, an utterly indispensable guide for novice and expert alike.

But in the musical drama reality begins to blur, the musical forms lose their excessively neat patterns, and doubt and ambiguity undermine characters and situations, reflecting the crisis of character typical of modernity. Indeed, much of the interest and originality of Verdi's operas lie in his adherence to both these contradictory systems, allowing the composer/dramatist to be simultaneously classical and modern, traditionalist and innovator.

Based on more than 30-years of research and drawing on both public and private archives, this biography of the great Italian composer is unprecedented in its unraveling of the facts and legends of his life and in portraying the man and his times. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A comprehensive guide to Verdi's RIGOLETTO, featuring Principal Characters in the opera, Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with over 35 Music Highlight Examples, a complete, newly translated LIBRETTO with English/Italian side-by-side, selected Discography and Videography, Dictionary of Opera and Musical Terms, and an insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis by Burton D. Fisher, noted opera author and lecturer.

During the middle phase of his career, 1849-1859, Verdi created some of his best-loved and most frequently performed operas, including Luisa Miller, Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, and Un ballo in maschera. This was also the period in which he wrote his first completely original French grand opera, Les Vepres siciliennes; the first version of Simon Boccanegra; and the intensely dramatic Stiffelio, until recent years the most neglected of all Verdi's mature works for the operatic stage. Featuring contributions from many of the most active Verdi scholars in the United States and Europe, Verdi's Middle Period explores the operas composed during this period from three interlinked perspectives: studies of the original source material, cross-disciplinary analyses of musical and textual issues, and the relationship of performance practice to Verdi's musical and dramatic conception. Both musicologists and serious opera buffs will enjoy this distinguished collection.

The first comprehensive study of Verdi's perennially popular opera Il trovatore, written by one of the world's great Verdi authorities. No full-length study has ever been written on Il trovatore, in his day Verdi's most successful stage work. This book by one of the world's great Verdi authorities fills that gap, providing a comprehensive look at the opera, from its genesis and structure to its early performance history and critical reception. Starting with the background of the opera, the volume traces the origins of the original play by Antonio García Gutiérrez, El trovador, and offers a new, more credible source for the drama. In addition, it examines the evolution of the libretto, the music, and the arrangement of the narrative, revealing innovative musical and dramatic features not seenby other critics. The book also includes a discussion of contemporary reviews and a section on some of the important performers in the twentieth century (for example, Toscanini and Caruso), as well as a consideration of several ofthe more unusual stagings of the work mounted during the final decades of the century. With these and other explorations, Martin Chusid offers a thorough survey of Verdi's Il trovatore and in the process deepens and enhances our encounter with one of the mainstays of the operatic reparatory. Martin Chusid is Professor Emeritus of Music, New York University, and founding director of the American Institute for Verdi Studies.

This book has its philosophical starting point in the idea that group-based social movements have positive implications for peace politics. It explores ways of imagining community, nation, and international systems through a political lens that is attentive to diversity and different lived experiences. Contributors suggest how groups might work toward new nonviolent conceptions and experiences of diverse communities and global stability.