Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna (Cambridge Studies in Opera)

Cambridge University Press, 11/27/1997
EAN 9780521572392, ISBN10: 0521572398

Hardcover, 472 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm
Language: English

This collection of essays, presented by an internationally known team of scholars, explores the world of Vienna and the development of opera buffa in the second half of the eighteenth century. Although today Mozart remains one of the most well-known figures of the period, the era was filled with composers, librettists, writers and performers who created and developed opera buffa. Among the topics examined are the relationship of Viennese opera buffa to French theatre; Mozart and eighteenth-century comedy; gender, nature and bourgeois society on Mozart's buffa stage; as well as close analyses of key works such as Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro.

Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction Mary Hunter and James Webster
Part I. Historical and Literary Contexts
1. Goldoni, opera buffa, and Mozart's advent in Vienna Daniel Heartz
2. Lo specchio francese
Viennese opera buffa and the legacy of French theatre Bruce Alan Brown
3. Il re alla caccia and Le roi et le fermier
Italian and French treatments of class and gender Marvin Carlson
4. Mozart and eighteenth-century comedy Paolo Gallarati
Part II. Social and Generic Meanings
5. The sentimental muse of opera buffa Edmund J. Goehring
6. The biology lessons of opera buffa
gender, nature, and Bourgeois society on Mozart's buffa stage Tia Denora
7. Bourgeois values and Opera Buffa in 1780's Vienna Mary Hunter
8. Opera seria? Opera buffa? Genre and style as sign Marita P. McLymonds
9. Figaro as misogynist
on aria types and aria rhetoric Ronald J. Rabin
10. The alternative endings of Mozart's Don Giovanni Michael F. Robinson
11. Don Giovanni
recognition denied Jessica Waldoff
Part III. Analytical and Methodological Issues
12. Analysis and dramaturgy
reflections towards a theory of Opera Sergio Durante
13. Understanding opera buffa
analysis = interpretation James Webster
14. Operatic ensembles and the problem of the Don Giovanni sextet John Platoff
15. Buffo roles in Mozart's Vienna
tessitura and tonality as signs of characterization Julian Rushton
List of works cited
Index.