"Libretto-bashing has a distinguished tradition in the blood sport of
opera," writes Arthur Groos in the introduction to this broad survey of
critical approaches to that much-maligned genre. To examine, and to
challenge, the long-standing prejudice against libretti and the
scholarly tradition that has, until recently, reiterated it, Groos and
Roger Parker have commissioned thirteen stimulating essays by
musicologists, literary critics, and historians. Taken as a whole, the
volume demonstrates that libretti are now very much within the purview
of contemporary humanistic scholarship. Libretti pose questions of
intertextuality, transposition of genre, and reception history. They
invite a broad spectrum of contemporary reading strategies ranging from
the formalistic to the feminist. And as texts for music they raise
issues in the relation between the two mediums and their respective
traditions. Reading Opera will be of value to anyone with a serious
interest in opera and contemporary opera criticism. The essays cover the
period from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, with
a particular focus on works of the later nineteenth century. The
contributors are Carolyn Abbate, William Ashbrook, Katherine Bergeron,
Caryl Emerson, Nelly Furman, Sander L. Gilman, Arthur Groos, James A.
Hepokoski, Jurgen Maehder, Roger Parker, Paul Robinson, Christopher
Wintle, and Susan Youens.
Originally published in 1988.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from
the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions
preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting
them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the
Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich
scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by
Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
