The Oxford Handbook of the Operatic Canon (Oxford Handbooks)

Opera has always been controversial, not only because of how vastly expensive it is to produce. It has historically been a vital and complex mixture of high art and commerce, socially elite and popular or middle-class, the new and the increasingly old. When a city wants a new landmark building, an opera house is very often the solution: why should this still be the case? The Oxford Handbook of the Operatic Canon examines how opera has become the concrete edifice it was never meant to be, by looking at how it evolved from a market entirely driven by novelty to one of the most arthritically canonic art forms still in existence. This new collection addresses questions that are key to opera's past, present and future. Why is the art form apparently so arthritically canonical, with the top ten titles, all more than a century old, accounting for nearly a quarter of all performances world-wide? Why is this top-heavy system of production becoming still more restrictive, even while the repertory is seemingly expanding, notably to include early music? Why did the operatic canon evolve so differently from that of concert music? And why has that evolution attracted so comparatively little attention from scholars? Why, finally, if opera houses all over the world are dutifully honoring their audiences' loyalty to these favorite works, are they having to struggle so hard financially? Answers to these and other problems are offered here by 26 musicologists, historians, and industry professionals working in a wide range of contexts. Topics range from the seventeenth century to the present day, and from Russia to England and continental Europe to the Americas. In an effort to reflect the contested nature of most of the issues facing opera, each topic is addressed by two essays, introduced jointly by the respective authors, and followed by a jointly compiled list of further reading. These paired essays complement each other in different ways: for example, by treating the same geographical location in different periods, by providing different national or regional perspectives on the same period, or by thinking through similar conceptual issues in contrasting or changing contexts. Posing its questions in fresh, provocative terms, The Oxford Handbook of the Operatic Canon challenges scholarly assumptions and expectations, and breathes fresh air into the fields of music and cultural history. Cover The Oxford Handbook of The Operatic Canon Copyright Contents List of Contributors Acknowledgments About the companion website Note to the reader General introduction: Idiosyncrasies of the operatic canon Terminology Different historical and geographical conceptions of the operatic canon Performing canons versus critical canons Novelty versus familiarity Quantitative measures of canonic status Notes Part I: History, Geography Introduction to Chapters 1 and 2: Foundations: France and Italy in the eighteenth century Chapter 1: The practical and symbolic functions of pre-Rameau opera at the Paris Opéra before Gluck Lully and his “imitators”: Canonization and early attacks on it From mild disaffection to open disrespect A new life for old opera The elusive image of old opera Notes Chapter 2: Italian opera and the concept of “canon” in the late eighteenth century Literati and a literary canon for Italian opera Literati on music and musicians: Classicism versus fashion Canon(s) in the operatic market, 1751–1760 Canon(s) of the operatic market, 1781–1790 Toward a renegotiation of the operatic star-system: The composer’s new starring role Notes Chapters 1 and 2: Further reading Introduction to chapters 3 and 4: From royal authority to public taste in Berlin, 1740–1815 Chapter 3: The repertory of the Italian Court Opera in Berlin, 1740–1786 Early history of Berlin opera Periods in the emergence of the Berlin canon, 1740–1786 The conditions that created the Italian Court Opera, 1740–1756 The revival of old operas, 1763–1786 The new era at the Opernhaus and the Nationaltheater, 1786–1796 Conclusion Notes Chapter 4: Catching up and getting ahead: The opera house as temple of art in Berlin c. 1800 Facing the past Renewing the canon Canonic infrastructures Notes Chapters 3 and 4: Further reading Introduction to chapters 5 and 6: Operatic practices at the London Opera: Pasticcio to repertory to canon? Chapter 5: From recycled performances to repertory: The King’s Theatre in London, 1705–1820 Notes Chapter 6: Repertory opera and canonic sensibility:The London Opera, 1820–1860 Toward repertory opera Toward a canonic sensibility Notes Chapters 5 and 6: Further reading Introduction to chapters 7 and 8: From capital-city opera house to provincial theaters in France Chapter 7: The evolution of French opera repertories in provincial theaters: Three epochs, 1770–1900 Choice of methodological focus: Premieres or repertories? The system of producing works 1770–1830: The triumph of opéra comique From Napoleon’s decrees to the period 1830–1860 After 1864: Continuity and expansion of repertory Conclusion Notes Chapter 8: The mingling of opera genres: Canonic opera at the Théâtre des Arts in Rouen, 1882–1897 The constraints of the theatrical system The origins of the Rouen repertory Attention to local traditions Notes Chapters 7 and 8: Further reading Introduction to chapters 9 and 10: The Italian opera world and its canons Chapter 9: Theaters, markets, and canonic implications in the Italian opera system, 1820–1880 Novelty in demand The changing trajectories of supply New media, new music-publishing practices Preludes to a canon? Notes Chapter 10: Operatic canons and repertories in Italy c. 1900 Repertories and publishers and the five “canonic columns” Sonzogno’s contribution Milan and La Scala as center of the duel Notes Chapters 9 and 10: Further reading Introduction to chapters 11 and 12: Opera in the western hemisphere, 1811–1910: New York, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo Chapter 11: International opera in nineteenth-century New York: Core repertories and canonic values The early years, arrangements, and tours New houses, new operas The Metropolitan Opera and its competitors Canon and core repertory Notes Chapter 12: Canons of real and imagined opera: Buenos Aires and Montevideo, 1810–1860 Rossini in Buenos Aires Bellini in Montevideo Feast after famine Notes Chapters 11 and 12: Further reading Introduction to chapters 13 and 14: Tensions Between the National and the Cosmopolitan: Canons in England and Russia Chapter 13: The Survival of English Opera in Nineteenth-Century Concert Life English opera in concert programs Ideological division in critical commentary on English opera Contrasting critical points of view A sturdy, changing tradition Notes Chapter 14: National and international canons of opera in Tsarist Russia The Imperial Theaters and the critics The status of foreign repertories Canonizing a national composer The national canon and the international repertory Notes Chapters 13 and 14: Further reading Part II: Other views, other Canons Introduction to chapters 15 and 16: Singers and the operatic canon Chapter 15: Setting the standard: Singers, theater practices, and the operatic canon in nineteenth-century France Defining the répertoire Débuts, rentrées, and benefit concerts Taking the canon on tour Reviving the “classics” From creators to interpreters Notes Chapter 16: Redefining the standard: Pauline Viardot and Gluck’s Orphée Pauline Viardot as Orphée Hearing and seeing Viardot as Orphée Total recall To canonize a singer Notes Chapters 15 and 16: Further reading Introduction to chapters 17 and 18: Uses of the operatic canon Chapter 17: Canons of the Risorgimento then and now Overlapping canons Il canone del Risorgimento The canon as participation Notes Chapter 18: “Blow the opera houses into the air: ”Wagner, Boulez, and Modernist canons Notes Chapters 17 and 18: Further reading Introduction to chapters 19 and 20: Rewriting the operatic canon Chapter 19: Phantoms at the Opéra: Meyerbeer and de-canonization Matters of life and death Afterlife Numerical work Counting canons Notes Chapter 20: The uses and disadvantages of opera history: Unhistorical thinking in fin-de-siècle Paris “Untimely” music: Gluck (and) the eternal D’Indy’s distortions Notes Chapters 19 and 20: Further reading Introduction to chapters 21 and 22: Contiguous genres: Operetta and American musicals Chapter 21: Viennese operetta canon formation and the journey to prestige Operetta in Vienna Wilhelm Karczag and the canonization of Strauss’s legacy “Negative eternity” The critical canon Notes Chapter 22: Canons of theAmerican musical A core canon A plurality of canons Notes Chapters 21 and 22: Further reading Introduction to chapters 23 and 24: Twentieth-century reproduction technology and the operatic canon Chapter 23: Sound recording and the operatic canon: Three “drops of the needle” Notes Chapter 24: Opera on film and the canon Beginnings Developments on the small screen Opera film as cinema Audio versus video The age of the HD broadcast Notes Chapters 23 and 24: Further reading Introduction to chapters 25 and 26: Views of the operatic canon from the industry Chapter 25: Critical reflections on the operatic canon Popular modern pieces Early music revivals (Long-)nineteenth-century revivals Europe versus the United States Technological developments Chapter 26: Inside and outside the operatic canon, on stage and in the boardroom Chapters 25 and 26: Further listening and viewing Bibliography Index Opera has always been a vital and complex mixture of commercial and aesthetic concerns, of bourgeois politics and elite privilege. In its long heyday in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it came to occupy a special place not only among the arts but in urban planning, too — this is, perhaps surprisingly, often still the case. The Oxford Handbook of the Operatic Canon examines how opera has become the concrete edifice it was never meant to be, by tracing its evolution from a market entirely driven by novelty to one of the most canonic art forms still in existence. Throughout the book, a lively assembly of musicologists, historians, and industry professionals tackle key questions of opera's past, present, and future. Why did its canon evolve so differently from that of concert music? Why do its top ten titles, all more than a century old, now account for nearly a quarter of all performances worldwide? Why is this system of production becoming still more top-heavy, even while the repertory seemingly expands, notably to include early music? Topics range from the seventeenth century to the present day, from Russia to England and continental Europe to the Americas. To reflect the contested nature of many of them, each is addressed in paired chapters. These complement each other in different ways: by treating the same geographical location in different periods, by providing different national or regional perspectives on the same period, or by thinking through similar conceptual issues in contrasting or changing contexts. Posing its questions in fresh, provocative terms, The Oxford Handbook of the Operatic Canon challenges scholarly assumptions in music and cultural history, and reinvigorates the dialogue with an industry that is, despite everything, still growing. "This collection examines the phenomenon of the operatic canon: its formation, history, current ontology and practical influence, and future. It does so by taking an international and interdisciplinary view: the workshops from which it was derived included the participation of critics, producers, artistic directors, stage directors, opera company CEOs, and even economists, from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Canada. The volume is structured as a series of dialogues: each subtopic is addressed by two essays, introduced jointly by the authors, and followed by a jointly compiled list of further reading. These paired essays complement each other in different ways, for example by treating the same geographical location in different periods, by providing different national or regional perspectives on the same period, or by thinking through similar conceptual issues in contrasting milieus. Part I consists of a selection of surveys of operatic production and consumption contexts in France, Italy, Germany, England, Russia, and the Americas, arranged in rough order from the late seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. Part II is a (necessarily) limited sample of subjects that illuminate the operatic canon from different-sometimes intentionally oblique-angles, ranging from the influence of singers to the contiguous genres of operetta and musical theater, and the effects of recording and broadcast over almost 150 years. The volume concludes with two essays written by prominent figures from the opera industry who give their sense of the operatic canon's evolution and prospects"-- Provided by publisher