Opera noua contemplatiua

In Opera as Art: Philosophical Sketches, Paul Thom argues for opera as an art, standing alongside other artforms that employ visual and sonic media to embody the great themes of hu...

The focus of this chapter is the most successful grand opera company of the decade, the troupe of Emma Abbott. This prima donna was thoroughly trained in the Italian school and per...

In this chapter, the author reflects on the issue of race in opera and its impact on black singers. He first recounts his European operatic debut in Milan in 1960, singing the role...

This chapter examines the role of race and racial representation in Ernst Krenek's 1927 opera Jonny spielt auf (“Jonny Strikes Up”) in order to determine whether it can be consider...

This chapter focuses on the Boston Ideal Opera Company, a comic opera troupe. Its founder, Effie Hinckley Ober, was not a performer, but a businesswoman who owned one of the first ...

This chapter examines the dynamics of race and race relations in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in the context of nationalism in nineteenth-century Egypt. The world premiere of Aida took pl...

Though the Cantonese opera network spanned the Americas, its manifestation in any particular place varied according to local conditions. This chapter considers three Chinese theate...

Carmen’s 1875 premiere at the Opéra-Comique was an unauspicious launch for a work that became Bizet’s most famous opera. Its controversial subject, Célestine Galli-Marié’s realist ...