Opera Odyssey: Toward a History of Opera in Nineteenth-Century America

(Hardback)

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Description

Ottenberg synthesizes material from a variety of sources--annals, memoirs, and scholarly sources--and, with them, weaves a coherent narrative of what was performed where, by whom, and what developments took place. Works, companies, and individual singers are discussed to reveal the 19th-century world of performance styles and audience expectations. This is a fascinating look at a relatively unexplored part of American musical and cultural history; the book casts new light on opera in America--its variety, popularity, and appeal to changing audiences throughout the century.

Reviews

This careful history, replete with lists of productions, performers, and companies, is both a useful reference and an entertaining view of America's changing view of art and of itself.-Bostonia
"This careful history, replete with lists of productions, performers, and companies, is both a useful reference and an entertaining view of America's changing view of art and of itself."-Bostonia

Author Bio

JUNE C. OTTENBERG is Professor of Music History Emerita at the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University, where she taught for many years. Her work with music in America has focused on musicians and music that immigrated to America from such places as England, Scotland, and Moravia. She contributes to various journals, has a chapter in the forthcoming Opera in the Golden West, and regularly publishes reviews of recordings in High/Performance Review.