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Alexandra Wilson

Bio: Alexandra Wilson is an academic researcher from Oxford Brookes University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Opera & Italian opera. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 13 publications receiving 135 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Puccini was moved at the affection shown by the Milanese for his opera, feeling it to be some recompense for the ill-treatment the La Scala audience had paid him at the premiere of Madama Butterfly in 1904.
Abstract: On February 1, 1923, Giacomo Puccini attended a gala performance of Manon Lescaut at La Scala. This was no ordinary revival: it was intended to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the work’s premiere. The opera, in a revised, “definitive” version, was the centerpiece of the 1922–23 season, receiving seventeen performances— more than any other work. For the gala performance the theater was sold out, the performers excelled themselves, and the audience called Puccini to the stage countless times. After the opera, the Puccinis, together with the conductor Arturo Toscanini, retired to the elegant Ristorante Cova, where a banquet was laid on for three hundred guests; entertainment was provided by young ladies who danced to the minuet from act 2 of Manon Lescaut. Puccini was moved at the affection shown by the Milanese for his opera, feeling it to be some recompense for the ill-treatment the La Scala audience had paid him at the premiere of Madama Butterfly in 1904. The anniversary performance of Manon Lescaut must surely have prompted the composer—along with many in the audience—to reflect on how his compositional style had developed over the thirty years since the opera’s premiere. Indeed, this was a question that subscribers to the Ricordi house journal, Musica d’oggi, had debated over the previous summer. The journal had conducted an opinion poll, inviting readers to nominate their favorite operas by Ricordi’s two most successful and profitable composers, Verdi and Puccini, and to indicate reasons for their preference. A total of 234 responses were submitted by readers from all over Italy—a figure evidently far exceeding the editor’s expectations— and a selection was published in the August–September issue. The opera that received the highest number of endorsements was La bohème, which, with forty-eight votes, emerged five ahead of the most popular Verdi opera, Aida. Next place, however, went to Manon Lescaut (thirty-seven votes), which beat the second most popular Verdi opera, Falstaff, by some distance and gained more than twice as many votes as either Tosca or Madama Butterfly. While such figures are hardly a reliable indicator of public opinion, the reasons Musica d’oggi readers gave for their choices are nevertheless illuminating.

40 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The 1890s was a moment at which the booming Italian opera and journalism industries converged, particularly in the large northern cities, to produce an explosion of periodicals devoted to opera, encompassing a range of critical methods as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Much ink was spilled on the subject of music in fin-de-siecle Italy. With the rapid expansion of the bourgeoisie during the last decades of the nineteenth century, opera-going in Italy was at its apogee, and as opera attendance surged so too did the demand for gossip about singers, titbits about the lives of composers and reviews of the latest works. This was a moment at which the booming Italian opera and journalism industries converged, particularly in the large northern cities, to produce an explosion of periodicals devoted to opera, encompassing a range of critical methods. The 1890s, however, also saw the development in Italy of a new branch of criticism devoted to more ‘serious’ types of music, penned by writers explicitly hostile to opera's domination of Italian musical life, who looked to the north as their cultural spiritual home.

37 citations

Book
09 Apr 2007
TL;DR: Wilson's study explores the ways in which Puccini's music and persona were held up as both the antidote to and the embodiment of the decadence widely felt to be afflicting late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Italy.
Abstract: A detailed investigation of the reception and cultural contexts of Puccini's music, this book offers a fresh view of this historically important but frequently overlooked composer. Wilson's study explores the ways in which Puccini's music and persona were held up as both the antidote to and the embodiment of the decadence widely felt to be afflicting late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Italy, a nation which although politically unified remained culturally divided. The book focuses upon two central, related questions that were debated throughout Puccini's career: his status as a national or international composer, and his status as a traditionalist or modernist. In addition, Wilson examines how Puccini's operas became caught up in a wide range of extra-musical controversies concerning such issues as gender and class. This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of both the history of opera and of the wider artistic and intellectual life of turn-of-the-century Italy.

32 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the implications of the perception of Turandot as a'machine woman' against the backdrop of contemporary developments in the Italian avant-garde spoken theatre.
Abstract: Giacomo Puccini was hailed as a national hero at his death in 1924, and again seventeen months later at the posthumous premiere of Turandot. However, close scrutiny of the Turandot reviews reveals complex subtexts underpinning the patriotic encomiums. Of particular concern to the early critics was the opera's eponymous heroine, who seemed symbolic of an emotionally sterile modernism. The implications of the perception of Turandot as a 'machine woman' are considered here against the backdrop of contemporary developments in the Italian avant-garde spoken theatre. as a highly self-interrogatory work, in which Puccini experimented with new approaches to operatic character and dramaturgy, and reflected upon his oeuvre past and present. Turandot and Liu were presented by critics as representing Puccini's late and early compositional manners, leading to concern about an apparent dichotomy in his style that was unwelcome in a final work. Discussions of the two heroines were used to articulate debates about Puccini's compositional sincerity; about changing attitudes towards operatic sentimentality; and about how the challenges posed by modernism were to be confronted within an Italian context.

9 citations

Book
04 Dec 2018
TL;DR: Opera in the Jazz Age as discussed by the authors examines the place of opera in the contemporary "Battle of the brows": a debate, prompted by the growth of the mass entertainment industry, about the extent to which art forms should be labelled "highbrow", "middlebrow" or "lowbrow".
Abstract: Opera in the Jazz Age examines the place of opera in the contemporary ‘battle of the brows’: a debate, prompted by the growth of the mass entertainment industry, about the extent to which art forms ought to be labelled ‘highbrow’, ‘middlebrow’, or ‘lowbrow’. The book considers this question from a number of viewpoints, examining topics including: the audience for opera during the period; opera’s interactions with forms of popular culture including jazz, film, and middlebrow novels; and the ways in which different types and nationalities of opera were categorised differently. A number of significant figures in the highbrow–lowbrow debate are scrutinised, among them highbrow and middlebrow critics, the mythical figure of the ‘man in the street’, and the much reviled celebrity singer. The book explains how modern technological dissemination methods such as gramophone recordings and broadcasting came to bear upon questions of cultural categorisation, as did contemporary anxieties about national identity. The book concludes that opera was very difficult to categorise according to the new terms: for some commentators it was too highbrow; for others not highbrow enough. Examining the battle of the brows through an operatic lens challenges received wisdom by revealing the fault lines in this supposedly definitive system of cultural categorisation, undermining any simplistic binary between the high and the low. More broadly, the book also gives a detailed account of British operatic culture of the 1920s from the perspectives of performance, staging, opera-going, and criticism.

4 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 1958-Notes
TL;DR: In this article, Kerman argues that opera is one of the greatest forms of dramatic art and gives accounts of some of the great operas by Monteverdi, Gluck, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Debussy and Berg.
Abstract: An attempt to show why opera is one of the greatest forms of dramatic art, this has accounts of some of the greatest operas by Monteverdi, Gluck, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Debussy and Berg. This revised edition has new material including a section on "Idomeneo" and an epilogue on "operatic criticism". Among Professor Kerman's other books include "Beethoven" (with Alan Tyson) and "Musicology". He is the co-editor of the journal "19th-century Music", and writes regularly for "The New York Review of Books", and "Critical Enquiry".

121 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, Fulcher argues that French musical meanings and values in the years from 1898 to 1914 are best explained not in terms of contemporary artistic movements, but rather in the political culture, which was undergoing subtle but profound transformation as nationalist leagues enlarged the arena of political action.
Abstract: This book argues that French musical meanings and values in the years from 1898 to 1914 are best explained not in terms of contemporary artistic movements, but rather in terms of the political culture, which was undergoing subtle but profound transformation as nationalist leagues enlarged the arena of political action. Applying recent insights from French history, sociology, political anthropology, and literary theory, the book reveals how nationalists used critics, educational institutions, concert series and lectures to disseminate their values through a discourse on French music; and it demonstrates how the Republic and Left responded to this challenge through their own discourses on French musical values. Against this background Fulcher traces the impact of this politicized musical culture on composers such as d'Indy, Charpentier, Magnard, Debussy, and Satie.

53 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Puccini was moved at the affection shown by the Milanese for his opera, feeling it to be some recompense for the ill-treatment the La Scala audience had paid him at the premiere of Madama Butterfly in 1904.
Abstract: On February 1, 1923, Giacomo Puccini attended a gala performance of Manon Lescaut at La Scala. This was no ordinary revival: it was intended to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the work’s premiere. The opera, in a revised, “definitive” version, was the centerpiece of the 1922–23 season, receiving seventeen performances— more than any other work. For the gala performance the theater was sold out, the performers excelled themselves, and the audience called Puccini to the stage countless times. After the opera, the Puccinis, together with the conductor Arturo Toscanini, retired to the elegant Ristorante Cova, where a banquet was laid on for three hundred guests; entertainment was provided by young ladies who danced to the minuet from act 2 of Manon Lescaut. Puccini was moved at the affection shown by the Milanese for his opera, feeling it to be some recompense for the ill-treatment the La Scala audience had paid him at the premiere of Madama Butterfly in 1904. The anniversary performance of Manon Lescaut must surely have prompted the composer—along with many in the audience—to reflect on how his compositional style had developed over the thirty years since the opera’s premiere. Indeed, this was a question that subscribers to the Ricordi house journal, Musica d’oggi, had debated over the previous summer. The journal had conducted an opinion poll, inviting readers to nominate their favorite operas by Ricordi’s two most successful and profitable composers, Verdi and Puccini, and to indicate reasons for their preference. A total of 234 responses were submitted by readers from all over Italy—a figure evidently far exceeding the editor’s expectations— and a selection was published in the August–September issue. The opera that received the highest number of endorsements was La bohème, which, with forty-eight votes, emerged five ahead of the most popular Verdi opera, Aida. Next place, however, went to Manon Lescaut (thirty-seven votes), which beat the second most popular Verdi opera, Falstaff, by some distance and gained more than twice as many votes as either Tosca or Madama Butterfly. While such figures are hardly a reliable indicator of public opinion, the reasons Musica d’oggi readers gave for their choices are nevertheless illuminating.

40 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The 1890s was a moment at which the booming Italian opera and journalism industries converged, particularly in the large northern cities, to produce an explosion of periodicals devoted to opera, encompassing a range of critical methods as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Much ink was spilled on the subject of music in fin-de-siecle Italy. With the rapid expansion of the bourgeoisie during the last decades of the nineteenth century, opera-going in Italy was at its apogee, and as opera attendance surged so too did the demand for gossip about singers, titbits about the lives of composers and reviews of the latest works. This was a moment at which the booming Italian opera and journalism industries converged, particularly in the large northern cities, to produce an explosion of periodicals devoted to opera, encompassing a range of critical methods. The 1890s, however, also saw the development in Italy of a new branch of criticism devoted to more ‘serious’ types of music, penned by writers explicitly hostile to opera's domination of Italian musical life, who looked to the north as their cultural spiritual home.

37 citations