Twelve original essays that explore the rich interplay of opera, ballet, and culture in eighteenth-century Europe and beyond and offer new insights into such important figures as Mozart and the castrato Farinelli.
Opera and theatrical dance were among the most important, elaborate, and influential products of European culture in the eighteenth century. Eighteenth-Century Opera and Ballet: New Perspectives on Sources and Practice, compiled and edited by Janet K. Page and Vanessa L. Rogers, gathers together essays by twelve leading scholars of the field. The volume engages with the creation and production of opera and ballet across diverse national traditions within Europe (and, in one chapter, colonial Brazil), the social and artistic lives of singers, historical performance practices, and issues of scholarship and interpretation. The various chapters provide fresh perspectives on major figures of the era, including Goethe, Gluck, and Mozart, renowned singers such as the castrato Farinelli and the soprano Aloisia Lange, and the enormously influential choreographer Gasparo Angiolini.
Collectively, the essays illuminate the intricate interconnections that characterized eighteenth-century musical and theatrical culture and reveal new aspects of music and performance during this pivotal era.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Celebrating the Legacy of Bruce Alan Brown
Vanessa L. Rogers and Janet K. Page
Part I: Illuminating Artistic Practice
1. Ballet in Paris in the Late Eighteenth Century, as Discussed by a
French Cellist and a Russian Nobleman
John A. Rice
2. Between Theoretical Aspiration and Artistic Practice: Angiolini in
Vienna, 1774-76
Irene Brandenburg
3. Airy Emanations or Pindaric Flights? Singing in London with Farinelli
(and Nicola Porpora)
Michael Burden
4. Reviving Eighteenth-Century Ballet-Pantomime Repertoire: In the
Footsteps of Bruce A. Brown
Helena Kazárová
Part II: Text and Character
5. Prospero, Sarastro, Faust
Thomas Bauman
6. Connections between Die Zauberflöte, Die Sonnenjungfrau, and Das
Sonnenfest der Braminen
Lisa de Alwis
7. Between Documentation and Image Construction: Gluck's Biography and
Its Sources
Daniel Brandenburg
Part III: Sources, Documentation, and Research Issues
8. (Im)possible Love? The Galanteries of Farinelli
Anne Desler
9. New Documents on Aloisia and Joseph Lange
Michael Lorenz
10. The Genesis of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro
Dexter Edge
11. Nannerl's Rebus, or Is a Picture Worth 5,000 Words?
Neal Zaslaw
12. The Colonial Opera Dilemma: Research Ethics and Heritagization in a
1960s Controversy in Brazil
Rogério Budasz
List of Contributors
Selected Bibliography of Publications by Bruce Alan Brown
Index
Tabula Gratulatoria
VANESSA ROGERS is Associate Professor of Music and Elizabeth G. Daughdrill Chair in Fine Arts at Rhodes College, VT and Principal Researcher for the website Ballad Operas Online: An Electronic Catalogue. JANET K PAGE is Professor of Musicology at the University of Memphis, TN and author of Convent Music and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Vienna. VANESSA ROGERS is Associate Professor of Music and Elizabeth G. Daughdrill Chair in Fine Arts at Rhodes College, VT and Principal Researcher for the website Ballad Operas Online: An Electronic Catalogue. JANET K PAGE is Professor of Musicology at the University of Memphis, TN and author of Convent Music and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Vienna.
