Abbate Carolyn - A history of opera: the last four hundred years

Carolyn Abbate is Professor of Music at Harvard University and the author of Unsung Voices and In Search of Opera. Her work has been translated into many languages. She herself is a translator, and has been involved in theatre as a dramaturge and director.

Roger Parker is Professor of Music at Kings College London and the author of Leonoras Last Act and Remaking the Song. He is founding co-editor of the Donizetti critical edition, and editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera.

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First published by Allen Lane 2012
Published with additional material in Penguin Books 2015

Copyright Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker, 2012, 2015

Queen of the Night by Ert, Graphic Edition, Embossed Serigraph with Foil Stamping, 1985 Sevenarts Ltd.

The moral right of the authors has been asserted

ISBN: 978-1-84-614791-3

In memoriam

Joseph Kerman (19242014)

1. Listening to opera in The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)
2. Audrey Hepburn at the opera in Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, 1957)
3. A reconstruction of the original Orfeo venue in Mantua (Courtesy of the Muse de Musique, Paris)
4. Giovanni Carlo Coppolas Le nozze degli dei, etching by Stefano della Bella, 1637 ( The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel / Vera & Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art / The Bridgeman Art Library)
5. Renata Pokupi as Irene from Tamerlano at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2010 ( 2010 Royal Opera House / Catherine Ashmore)
6. William Hogarth, The Bad Taste of the Town, February 1724 ( Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library)
7. William Hogarth, The Castrati, engraved print, 1726 ( Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library)
8. Portrait of Rosalie Levasseur, engraving by Nol Pruneau, 1790
9. Pauline Viardot as Orphe, carte de visite photograph, 1859 (TCS 25 (Viardot, Pauline), Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University)
10. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, portrait by Barbara Krafft, 1819 ( Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Wien, Austria / The Bridgeman Art Library)
11. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, silverpoint drawing by Doris Stock, 1789 ( Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library)
12. Papageno from the Leipzig premiere of Mozarts Die Zauberflte, coloured engraving by Johann Salomon Richter, 1793 (Courtesy of the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig)
13. Sarastro from the Leipzig premiere of Mozarts Die Zauberflte, coloured engraving by Johann Salomon Richter, 1793 (Courtesy of the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig)
14. Charles Edward Horn as Caspar in Webers Der Freischtz, London, 1824 ( Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Great Britain / Lessing Photo Archive)
15. Wilhelmine Schrder-Devrient as Fidelio in Beethovens opera, lithograph by W. Sauter, 1823 ( akg-images)
16. Nineteenth-century portrait of Caroline Ungher (Authors collection)
17. Guillaume Tell apple scene rendered in Svres porcelain ( Runion des Muses Nationaux (Svres, Cit de la cramique) / Martine Beck-Coppola)
18. Mickey Mouse conducting William Tell in The Band Concert, 1935
19. Natalie Dessay as Lucia in Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor, Metropolitan Opera, 2007 ( Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)
20. Die Heldentenre, caricature by Gustave Dor, 1860s (Authors collection)
21. A Ball at the Opera, colour lithograph by Eugne Charles Franois Gurard, undated ( Muse de la Ville de Paris, Muse Carnavalet, Paris, France / Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library)
22. Liebig advertising card showing Verdis Rigoletto (Authors collection)
23. Verdis funeral procession, Milan, 26 February 1901 ( akg-images / Interfoto)
24. Stage design by Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph-Franois-Dsire Thierry for Meyerbeers LAfricaine, engraving published in Lillustration, May 1865
25. Wagners Tannhuser, Metropolitan Opera, 2004 ( Marty Sohl / Metropolitan Opera)
26. A Treasury of Grand Opera, Simon and Schuster, 1946 (Authors collection)
27. Cover for the sheet music of Faust, 1931 (Authors collection)
28. Ris Stevens advertising Chesterfield cigarettes, 1948 (Authors collection)
29. Film poster for Aida with Sophia Loren in the title role (Clemente Fracassi, 1953) ( akg-images)
30. Emma Calv as Carmen, nineteenth-century postcard (Authors collection)
31. Aubers Fra Diavolo, lithograph by John Brandard from a photo by Herbert Watkins, c. 1858 (Authors collection)
32. Caricature of Jacques Offenbach for La Lune, colour engraving by Andr Gill, 4 November 1866
33. Carl Cochems as Hagen from Wagners Gtterdmmerung, postcard, c. 1910 (Authors collection)
34. Verdi the Latin Wagner, caricature by Carl von Stur in Der Floh, 13 February 1887 (Courtesy of the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale)
35. A page of Janeks sketches for the original 1904 version of Jenfa (BmJA Janek Archive, Moravian Regional Museum, Brno: Music History Division)
36. Enrico Caruso as Cavaradossi in Puccinis Tosca, Metropolitan Opera House, 1903. Photograph by Aim Dupont (Courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera Archives)
37. Geraldine Farrar as Suor Angelica in Puccinis Il trittico, Metropolitan Opera, 1918 (Courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera Archives)
38. Lauritz Melchior recording the Prize Song from Wagners Die Meistersinger in Two Sisters from Boston (Henry Koster, 1946)
39. Costume design by Ert (Romain de Tirtoff) for Mlisande in Debussys Pellas et Mlisande, Metropolitan Opera, 1927 ( 2012 Digital Image The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource / Scala, Florence)
40. Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannstahl, silhouette by Willi Bithorn, 1914 ( akg-images)
41. Nadja Michael and Duncan Meadows in Strausss Salome, Royal Opera House, 2008 ( Clive Barda)
42. Cover of the vocal score for Ernst Kreneks Jonny spielt auf, 1927
43. Costume designs by Eduard Milen for Janeks Cunning Little Vixen, National Theatre, Brno, 1924 (Courtesy of Moravian Museum, Brno: Theatre Department)
44. Still from Le Million (Ren Clair, 1931)
45. The ruined Deutsche Volksoper, Hamburg, 1945 ( akg-images)
46. John Adams, Nixon in China, Metropolitan Opera, 2011 ( Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera)
47. Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Teatro Regio Torino, 2010 (Courtesy of Teatro Regio Torino Photo Ramella&Giannese)
48. Le Sortie de lOpra en lan