Handel on the Stage

David Kimbell sets Handel's operas in their biographical and cultural contexts, exploring drama, music and styles of performance.

List of contents

Preface; 1. Handel and opera - a biographical survey of the circumstances; 2. The libretto (1) - argument - dramatis personae; 3. The libretto (2) - words for music; 4. The music (1) - mastering the medium; 5. The music (2) - its role in the drama; 6. Aspects of the performance of Handelian opera in his time and in ours; Appendix: an overview of the repertory of the Royal Academy of Music.

About the author

David Kimbell is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh. His publications include Verdi in the Age of Italian Romanticism (Cambridge, 1981), Italian Opera (Cambridge, 1991) and Vincenzo Bellini: Norma (Cambridge, 1998). He has also contributed to The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia, The Cambridge History of Italian Literature and The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature, and has edited volumes for Hallische Händel-Ausgabe and Works of Giuseppe Verdi.

Summary

For thirty years the opera-house was the principal focus of Handel's creative work and he composed more than forty operas over this period. In this book, David Kimbell sets Handel's operas in their biographical and cultural contexts, exploring the librettos and the music, and how the operas were performed.

Product details

• Authors: David Kimbell, David (University of Edinburgh) Kimbell, Kimbell David
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.01.2019
• EAN: 9780521521604
• ISBN: 978-0-521-52160-4
• No. of pages: 224
• Series: Composers on the Stage; Composers on the Stage
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Opera, Opera, baroque, Composers and songwriters, Baroque music (c 1600 to c 1750)