alvaresj | 1 Dec 2009 01:27

The Classical World and Opera...

Been watching a lot of opera clips on YouTube recently. The thought just 
came to me -- would anybody know of an English-language book on
something like "The Classical World in Opera"?

-- Jean Alvares

Marianne McDonald | 1 Dec 2009 01:41
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Re: The Classical World and Opera...

YES....MY BOOK: SING SORROW: HISTORY, CLASSIS, HISTORY AND HEROINES IN OPERA
GREENWOOD PRESS 2001......AND THE HEROINES ARE NOTHING WITHOUT THE MEN AND
THE CONTEXTS....I ALSO HAVE AN APPENDIX OF OPERAS BASED ON THE CLASSICS...
OPERA QUARTERLY SAID IT SHOULD BE A TEXT BOOK.....(SOMETHING THAT
UNIVERSITIES SOMETIMES DON'T CONSIDER IMPORTANT). I WROTE IT, AS I HAVE
OTHERS (LIKE THE LIVING ART OF GREEK TRAGEDY, UNIVERSITY OF INDIANA, 2003)
TO USE IN MY CLASSES (I TEACH IN A DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE, AND THE CLASSICS
PROGRAM....MY PH.D. WAS IN CLASSICS)....SO I WANT SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE IN
THEATRE...STAGING...SPECTACLE...MUSIC...YES AND PLOT, CHARACTERIZATION AND
THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE, AS ARISTOTLE SUGGESTED. I TRACE THE FLORENTINE
CAMARATA AND HOW THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE REVIVING GREEK TRAGEDY...AS
NIETZSCHE ALSO ILLUSTRATED....

HOPE THIS HELPS....

On 11/30/09 4:27 PM, "alvaresj" <alvaresj <at> MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU> wrote:

> Been watching a lot of opera clips on YouTube recently. The thought just
> came to me -- would anybody know of an English-language book on
> something like "The Classical World in Opera"?
> 
> -- Jean Alvares

alvaresj | 1 Dec 2009 01:42

Re: The Classical World and Opera...

Thanks so, so much!!!!!!! Definitely these are a must have!

-- Jean Alvares

Marianne McDonald wrote:
> YES....MY BOOK: SING SORROW: HISTORY, CLASSIS, HISTORY AND HEROINES IN OPERA
> GREENWOOD PRESS 2001......AND THE HEROINES ARE NOTHING WITHOUT THE MEN AND
> THE CONTEXTS....I ALSO HAVE AN APPENDIX OF OPERAS BASED ON THE CLASSICS...
> OPERA QUARTERLY SAID IT SHOULD BE A TEXT BOOK.....(SOMETHING THAT
> UNIVERSITIES SOMETIMES DON'T CONSIDER IMPORTANT). I WROTE IT, AS I HAVE
> OTHERS (LIKE THE LIVING ART OF GREEK TRAGEDY, UNIVERSITY OF INDIANA, 2003)
> TO USE IN MY CLASSES (I TEACH IN A DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE, AND THE CLASSICS
> PROGRAM....MY PH.D. WAS IN CLASSICS)....SO I WANT SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE IN
> THEATRE...STAGING...SPECTACLE...MUSIC...YES AND PLOT, CHARACTERIZATION AND
> THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE, AS ARISTOTLE SUGGESTED. I TRACE THE FLORENTINE
> CAMARATA AND HOW THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE REVIVING GREEK TRAGEDY...AS
> NIETZSCHE ALSO ILLUSTRATED....
>
> HOPE THIS HELPS....
>
>
> On 11/30/09 4:27 PM, "alvaresj" <alvaresj <at> MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU> wrote:
>
>   
>> Been watching a lot of opera clips on YouTube recently. The thought just
>> came to me -- would anybody know of an English-language book on
>> something like "The Classical World in Opera"?
>>
>> -- Jean Alvares
>>     
(Continue reading)

Marianne McDonald | 1 Dec 2009 02:58
Favicon

Re: The Classical World and Opera...

I appreciate that! Thanks for your graciousness!
Marianne

On 11/30/09 4:42 PM, "alvaresj" <alvaresj <at> MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU> wrote:

> Thanks so, so much!!!!!!! Definitely these are a must have!
> 
> -- Jean Alvares
> 
> Marianne McDonald wrote:
>> YES....MY BOOK: SING SORROW: HISTORY, CLASSIS, HISTORY AND HEROINES IN OPERA
>> GREENWOOD PRESS 2001......AND THE HEROINES ARE NOTHING WITHOUT THE MEN AND
>> THE CONTEXTS....I ALSO HAVE AN APPENDIX OF OPERAS BASED ON THE CLASSICS...
>> OPERA QUARTERLY SAID IT SHOULD BE A TEXT BOOK.....(SOMETHING THAT
>> UNIVERSITIES SOMETIMES DON'T CONSIDER IMPORTANT). I WROTE IT, AS I HAVE
>> OTHERS (LIKE THE LIVING ART OF GREEK TRAGEDY, UNIVERSITY OF INDIANA, 2003)
>> TO USE IN MY CLASSES (I TEACH IN A DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE, AND THE CLASSICS
>> PROGRAM....MY PH.D. WAS IN CLASSICS)....SO I WANT SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE IN
>> THEATRE...STAGING...SPECTACLE...MUSIC...YES AND PLOT, CHARACTERIZATION AND
>> THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE, AS ARISTOTLE SUGGESTED. I TRACE THE FLORENTINE
>> CAMARATA AND HOW THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE REVIVING GREEK TRAGEDY...AS
>> NIETZSCHE ALSO ILLUSTRATED....
>> 
>> HOPE THIS HELPS....
>> 
>> 
>> On 11/30/09 4:27 PM, "alvaresj" <alvaresj <at> MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU> wrote:
>> 
>>   
>>> Been watching a lot of opera clips on YouTube recently. The thought just
(Continue reading)

Ralph Hancock | 1 Dec 2009 01:59

Re: The Classical World and Opera...

Jean Alvares wrote:

> Been watching a lot of opera clips on YouTube recently. The thought just
> came to me -- would anybody know of an English-language book on
> something like "The Classical World in Opera"?

Interested in this too, since I realised that Monteverdi thought of
his operas as a direct continuation of the music-accompanied dramas of
the ancient world. But I can't find much.

There is this article:
Michael Ewens, 'Opera from the Greek: Studies in the poetics of
appropriation', 2007
http://ml.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/90/4/695
Full text online, requires subscription (which your university might
have anyway):
http://ml.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/90/4/695

and a book:
Robert C. Ketterer, _Ancient Rome in Early Opera_, U Illinois Press 2008
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/62hzq4bg9780252033780.html

I never thought I'd say this, but over to you, J.L. Speranza ...

RH

John M. McMahon | 1 Dec 2009 14:06
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General Interest: The Ideal Teacher (w/some cc)

IHE 12/1/09:

"An Ideal Teacher"

"I used to strive to be an ideal teacher, but I gave up, because not only
could I not satisfy a single classroom, I couldn¹t even maintain my ideality
for smitten students who took me for a second course. If there were a
teacher-god in Greek mythology, I would worship at that temple for guidance.
Mentor, of course, is ideal, and he was ideal for Odysseus and Telemachos
alike. But remember that Athena herself has to impersonate Mentor in order
to instruct Telemachos. To be the ideal teacher of my students, who have
come from all over the globe to our Brooklyn community college with various
beliefs about teaching and learning, they would all have to have a hand in
creating me. What a magnificent creature I would be!

Ideal Teacher is fluent in the first language of all of his students. He can
explain arcane English grammar backwards and forwards and compare it to
Mandarin or French; he sees the parallels of all human utterance. His thing
isn¹t language so much as divining the incomprehension each student has in
her way. Ideal Teacher is continually murmuring 'Ah!' as he surveys the
classroom. 'I see!' And he utters the perfect words (or projects the perfect
expression from his twinkling face), and the enlightened student swoons,
almost melts, with happy comprehension."

More:

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/12/01/blaisdell

JMM / LMC

(Continue reading)

J. L. Speranza | 1 Dec 2009 13:51
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Il tenore della catarsi

transpontine melodrama, and opera greco-romana

In a message dated 12/1/2009 3:00:48 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
LISTSERV <at> LSV.UKY.EDU writes:

Interested in this too, since I realised that Monteverdi thought  of
his operas as a direct continuation of the music-accompanied dramas  of
the ancient world. But I can't find much... [O]ver to you, J.L.  Speranza.

--- Thanks. Alvares, Alvarez, etc. I advise a check with the archives. My  
contributions to CLASSICS-L have been 'microscopic' rather than macroscopic, 
so  I suppose they will work in a search engine if you are into a SPECIFIC 
query as  to a SPECIFIC opera. 

--- I have exchanged thoughts with McDonald. I haven't read her latest, but 
 I will. Since she seemed to be SCREAMING to me! (Just joking).

--- I have also reviewed a Bryn Mawr review (very "poor" book on opera and  
the classics). My contributions I called "opera greca" and "opera romana"  
basically. I tried to provide headers of a systematic nature, usually 
starting  with 'opera'. 

--- I have provided in some cases chronologies for SPECIFIC heroes. I  
recall my post on ERACLE, to have a lister say that I have omitted an opera by  
Handel -- in ENGLISH! when indeed my goal was to list ONLY Italian-language  
operas.

--- But of course Hancock is _wrong_ (just joking). It was Galileo who  
theorised about this and that. Monteverdi is what we call an 'outsider'. It was 
 the Camerata Florentina. Oddly, it is said that the 'soul' of this 
(Continue reading)

Amanda Wrigley | 1 Dec 2009 14:56
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Re: The Classical World and Opera...

Re the classical world and opera thread, the following forthcoming volume
may also be of interest:

Ancient Drama in Music for the Modern Stage 

Edited by Peter Brown and Suzana Ograjensek 

450 pages | 20 in-text illustrations | 234x156mm 

978-0-19-955855-1 | Hardback | August 2010 (estimated) 

Oxford University Press

1: Roger Savage: Precursors, Precedents, Pretexts: the Institutions of
Greco-Roman Theatre and the Development of European Opera
2: Michele Napolitano: Greek Tragedy and Opera: Notes on a Marriage Manqué
3: Jason Geary: Incidental Music and the Revival of Greek Tragedy from the
Italian Renaissance to German Romanticism
4: Wendy Heller: Phaedra's Handmaiden: Tragedy as Comedy and Spectacle in
Seventeenth-Century Opera
5: Jennifer Thorp: Dance in Lully's Alceste
6: Amy Wygant: The Ghost of Alcestis
7: Suzana Ograjensek: The Rise and Fall of Andromache on the Operatic Stage,
1660s-1820s
8: Robert C. Ketterer: Opera Librettos and Greek Tragedy in
Eighteenth-Century Venice: The Case of Agostino Piovene
9: Reinhard Strohm: Ancient Tragedy in Opera, and the Operatic Début of
Oedipus the King (Munich, 1729)
10: Michael Burden: Establishing a text, securing a reputation: Metastasio's
Use of Aristotle
(Continue reading)

John Isles | 1 Dec 2009 16:34

Rome resources

We are planning to spend some time in Rome each year.  I have two questions
for members of this invariably well-informed list.

Is there a recommended publication (first choice) or website (second) that
would keep us up to date on museum exhibits, sites newly opened to the
public, changed opening hours, and other such matters?  We have the
guidebooks, but is there a periodical?

Is there a single-volume vade mecum to wildlife in the area of Rome?  My
searches on Amazon.com have been unfruitful.

In both cases, no language barrier would be insurmountable.  In fact Italian
would be welcomed.  Many thanks in anticipation.

-------------------------------------------
John Isles
Hanover, Michigan
North American Secretary, The Webb Deep-Sky Society
www.webbdeepsky.com
'Caeli scrutamur plagas'

Susann Lusnia | 1 Dec 2009 17:55
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Favicon

Re: Rome resources

Musei Capitolini (English site: http://en.museicapitolini.org/) for all their current and upcoming exhibits.

If you're comfortable dealing with Italian, then use La Repubblica's Roma page:  http://roma.repubblica.it/

In English publications on newsstands, there are:

1) The Roman Forum (http://www.theromanforum.com/), which I used this past summer. It is chock full of
info on events, including special openings of archaeological and other sites.

2) Wanted in Rome (http://www.wantedinrome.com/) -- I haven't used this in a while, but I used to use it all
the time back in the 90s, when it was the main publication for English speakers in Rome.
 I think it's still available on newsstands, though I'm not certain.  On their website, look at the
"Channels" in the left hand menu bar. The "What's On..." link will give you a way to search what events in a
variety of categories.

Enjoy!  
-----
Dr. Susann Lusnia
slusnia <at> tulane.edu
Classical Studies
Tulane University
504-862-3078

On Dec 1, 2009, at 9:34 AM, John Isles wrote:

> We are planning to spend some time in Rome each year.  I have two questions
> for members of this invariably well-informed list.
> 
> Is there a recommended publication (first choice) or website (second) that
> would keep us up to date on museum exhibits, sites newly opened to the
(Continue reading)


Gmane