Meyerbeer Studies: A Series of Lectures, Essays, and Articles on the Life and Work of Giacomo Meyerbeer

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Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 2005 - Music - 238 pages
"In 1936 Meyerbeer's opera Les Huguenots achieved its 1,120[superscript th] performance at the Paris Opera. This extraordinary record is an indication of the vast fame and influence of its composer who was once a household name, like Verdi or Puccini. Now he is unknown to the ordinary opera lover. These essays represent something of an odyssey to seek out and know the shadowy figure behind so much divided opinion and long neglect. They represent attempts, at various stages over thirty years, to find Meyerbeer and enter the world of his remarkable operatic creations that once so characterized the musical life of European civilization."--Jacket.
 

Contents

Musics Great Enigma Giacomo Meyerbeer Neglected Master of Grand Opera
19
History Myth and Music in a Theme of Exploration Some Reflections on the MusicoDramatic Language of LAfricaine
41
The Thematic Nexus of Religion Power Politics and Love in the Operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer
64
Meyerbeer and the Comic Spirit Miniature Variations on Grand Themes
96
Che Sara Sara The Star of Which Dreams Are Made Scribe and Meyerbeers Opera Comique LEtoile du Nord
106
The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer
126
Giacomo Meyerbeers Briefwechsel und Tagebucher Vol 5
130
Meyerbeer Halevy and Auber Some Perspectives on the World of MidNineteenthCentury French Opera
141
Bellini and Meyerbeer Melodic Structure and Dramatic Exigency
165
Hector Berlioz and Giacomo Meyerbeer A Complex Friendship Revisited
187
General Index
228
Index of Scholars
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Page 19 - Meyerbeer's object was to make the mere externals tell. He did not care in the least whether his details were commonplace or not. His scores look elaborate and full of work, but the details are the commonest arpeggios, familiar and hackneyed types of figures of accompaniment, scales, and obvious rhythms.

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