Name: Puccini's La Boheme By Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)
SKU: 9780190637897
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Puccini's La Boheme Summary

Puccini's La Boheme by Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)

Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world. But how did it come to be so adored? In this book, author Alexandra Wilson traces La Boheme's rise to fame and demonstrates that its success grew steadily through stage performances, recordings, filmed versions and the endorsements of star singers. More recently, popular songs, film soundtracks and musicals that draw on the opera's music and themes added further to its immense cultural impact. This cultural history offers a fresh reading of a familiar work. Wilson argues that La Boheme's approach to realism and its flouting of conventions of the Italian operatic tradition made it strikingly modern for the 1890s. She explores how Puccini and his librettists engaged with gender, urban poverty and nostalgia-themes that grew out of the work's own time and continue to resonate with audiences more than 120 years later. Her analysis of the opera's depiction of Paris reveals that La Boheme was not only influenced by the romantic mythologies surrounding the city to this day but also helped shape them. Wilson's consideration of how directors have reinvented this opera for a new age completes this fascinating history of La Boheme, making it essential reading for anyone interested in this opera and the works it inspired.

Puccini's La Boheme Reviews

[Wilson's] own love for & insight into the work, & indeed into Puccini's individual approach to music drama, shine out....she deftly identifies the strong reasons why connoisseurs continue to delight in the piece. [She] is scrupulous in addressing still-prevalent negative attitudes fully and fairly, while ultimately refuting them....measured and observant. * Opera Magazine *
Wilson's exploration of La boheme takes the reader on a thoroughly fascinating journey, which starts from an approachable, jargon-free reading of the opera and its cultural context, and then travels from late nineteenth-century Paris, where the opera is set, through diverse times and places.Balancing admirably between documents and interpretation, and paying due attention to popular culture and conceptual staging, this book is a model in its kind, and will engage readers who are looking for an entry point into a beloved masterpiece as well as those who are already familiar with La boheme and in search of new insights and perspectives. * Francesco Izzo, Professor of Music University of Southampton and General Editor of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi *
Wilson is one of a few truly innovative Puccini scholars writing today. In this fascinating new book she explains how - against many odds and contrary to the expectations of early critics - La boheme became the work that still speaks to all of us, across generations and regardless of national, social and cultural boundaries. Her book is peppered with fascinating responses to Puccini's opera, from directors, critics and audiences. If we are to understand the success of Puccini's language, we have to look beyond conventional ideas of operatic italianita. Wilson's book shows us how to do this. * Axel Koerner, University College London *

About Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)

Alexandra Wilson is Professor of Music and Cultural History at Oxford Brookes University. Her research focuses on opera and operatic culture from the nineteenth century to the present. Her publications include the award-winning The Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism, and Modernity and a monograph on Opera in the Jazz Age: Cultural Politics in 1920s Britain (OUP, 2019), and she regularly works with the UK's leading opera companies.

Additional information

Sku

CIN0190637897VG

ISBN 13

9780190637897

ISBN 10

0190637897

Title

Puccini's La Boheme by Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)

Author

Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)

Series

Oxford Keynotes

Condition

Used - Very Good

Binding type

Paperback

Publisher

Oxford University Press Inc

Year published

2021-01-12

Number of pages

168

Prizes

N/A

Cover note

Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.

Note

This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Puccini's La Boheme Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)

Puccini's La Boheme by Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)

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Puccini's La Boheme Summary

Puccini's La Boheme by Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)

Puccini's La Boheme Reviews

About Alexandra Wilson (Professor of Music and Cultural History, Professor of Music and Cultural History, Oxford Brookes University)

Table of Contents

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Customer Reviews - Puccini's La Boheme