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The Politics of Opera takes readers on a fascinating journey into the entwined development of opera and politics, from the Renaissance through the turn of the nineteenth century. What political backdrops have shaped opera? How has opera conveyed the political ideas of its times? Delving into European history and thought and an array of music by such greats as Lully, Rameau, and Mozart, Mitchell Cohen reveals how politics - through story lines, symbols, harmonies, and musical motifs - has played an operatic role both robust and sotto voce. An engrossing book that will interest all who love opera and are intrigued by politics, The Politics of Opera offers a compelling investigation into the intersections of music and the state.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Mitchell Cohen is professor of political science at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and editor emeritus of Dissent magazine. His books include Zion and State and The Wager of Lucien Goldmann (Princeton). His writing has appeared in such publications as the New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement. He lives in New York City.
Zusammenfassung
A wide-ranging look at the interplay of opera and political ideas through the centuries
The Politics of Opera takes readers on a fascinating journey into the entwined development of opera and politics, from the Renaissance through the turn of the nineteenth century. What political backdrops have shaped opera? How has opera conveyed the political ideas of its times? Delving into European history and thought and an array of music by such greats as Lully, Rameau, and Mozart, Mitchell Cohen reveals how politics—through story lines, symbols, harmonies, and musical motifs—has played an operatic role both robust and sotto voce.
Cohen begins with opera's emergence under Medici absolutism in Florence during the late Renaissance—where debates by humanists, including Galileo's father, led to the first operas in the late sixteenth century. Taking readers to Mantua and Venice, where composer Claudio Monteverdi flourished, Cohen examines how early operatic works like Orfeo used mythology to reflect on governance and policy issues of the day, such as state jurisdictions and immigration. Cohen explores France in the ages of Louis XIV and the Enlightenment and Vienna before and during the French Revolution, where the deceptive lightness of Mozart's masterpieces touched on the havoc of misrule and hidden abuses of power. Cohen also looks at smaller works, including a one-act opera written and composed by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Essential characters, ancient and modern, make appearances throughout: Nero, Seneca, Machiavelli, Mazarin, Fenelon, Metastasio, Beaumarchais, Da Ponte, and many more.
An engrossing book that will interest all who love opera and are intrigued by politics, The Politics of Opera offers a compelling investigation into the intersections of music and the state.
Zusatztext
"How should the history of political thought be written? . . . [A bold] step has been taken by Mitchell Cohen in his new book. Cohen, a political scientist who is also a music lover, is equally interested in the place of music in politics (metaphors of harmony, for instance) and the place of politics in music. . . . [His book] discusses not only the political context of operas and what is said openly in their librettos but, more unusually, the music as well—changing keys, recurrent motifs, and their emotional associations. . . . He often impresses."---Peter Burke, Common Knowledge
Bericht
"To say that The Politics of Opera is a remarkable achievement would be to give no sense of the magnitude of the undertaking, the challenge of writing a work that does justice not only to the political underpinnings of opera, but also to its music, drama, dramaturgy, and singers. This is an important cultural history and Cohen is a brilliant guide." - Richard Kramer, author of Cherubino's Leap and Unfinished Music
