Singing Sappho

Improvisation and Authority in Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera

Melina Esse (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

224 Seiten

2021
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-74177-2 (ISBN)

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From the theatrical stage to the literary salon, the figure of Sappho--the ancient poet and inspiring icon of feminine creativity--played a major role in the intertwining histories of improvisation, text, and performance throughout the nineteenth century. Exploring the connections between operatic and poetic improvisation in Italy and beyond, Singing Sappho combines earwitness accounts of famous female improviser-virtuosi with erudite analysis of musical and literary practices. Melina Esse demonstrates that performance played a much larger role in conceptions of musical authorship than previously recognized, arguing that discourses of spontaneity--specifically those surrounding the improvvisatrice, or female poetic improviser--were paradoxically used to carve out a new authority for opera composers just as improvisation itself was falling into decline. With this novel and nuanced book, Esse persuasively reclaims the agency of performers and their crucial role in constituting Italian opera as a genre in the nineteenth century.

Melina Esse is associate professor of musicology at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

Introduction

Chapter 1   History’s Muse: The Spectacle of Poetic Improvisation

Chapter 2    Corinna’s Crown: Improvisation and Authority in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims

Chapter 3   Divinely Inspired: Incantation and the Making of Melody in Bellini’s Norma

Chapter 4    Saffo’s Lyre: Improvising Operatic Authorship

Chapter 5    A Sapphic Orpheus: Pauline Viardot and the Sexual Politics of Operatic Collaboration

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	11.03.2021
Reihe/Serie	Opera Lab: Explorations in History, Technology, and Performance
Sprache	englisch
Maße	6 x 9 mm
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Klassik / Oper / Musical
Themenwelt	Sonstiges ► Geschenkbücher
ISBN-10	0-226-74177-X / 022674177X
ISBN-13	978-0-226-74177-2 / 9780226741772
Zustand	Neuware