| Contents |
Toward an understanding of Verdi's middle period / Martin Chusid -- New sources for Stiffelio: a preliminary report / Philip Gossett -- Compositional techniques in Stiffelio: reading the autograph sources / Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell -- "A Monk and at least some new things": Verdi, Cammarano, and L'assedio di firenze / Carlo Matteo Mossa -- "Insolite forme," or Basevi's garden path / Roger Parker -- Ottocento opera as cultural drama: generic mixtures in Il Trovatore / James Hepokoski -- "Something's been done to make room for choruses": choral conception and choral construction in Luisa Miller / Markus Engelhardt -- New source for El trovador and its implications for the tonal organization of Il Trovatore / Martin Chusid -- "Proud, indomitable, irascible": allegories of nation in Attila and Les Vep̂res siciliennes / Mary Ann Smart -- Masking music: a reconsideration of light and shade in Un Ballo in Maschera / Elizabeth Hudson -- "La dama velata": act II of Un Ballo in Maschera / Harold Powers -- Meter, character, and Tinta in Verdi's operas / David Rosen -- Aspects of tempo in Verdi's early and middle-period Italian operas / Roberta Montemorra Marvin -- Violin director and Verdi's middle-period operas / Linda B. Fairtile. |
| Abstract |
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, this book 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. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 96031949 |
| ISBN | 0226106586 (cloth : alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 0226106594 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
