Ancient Drama in Music for the Modern Stage
Peter Brown and Suzana Ograjenšek
Abstract
Opera was invented at the end of the sixteenth century in imitation of the supposed style of delivery of ancient Greek tragedy, and, since then, operas based on Greek drama have been among the most important in the repertoire. This book provides an exceptionally wide-ranging and detailed overview of the relationship between the two genres. Since tragedies have played a much larger part than comedies in this branch of operatic history, the volume mostly concentrates on the tragic repertoire, but a chapter on musical versions of Aristophanes' Lysistrata is included, as well as discussions of inc ... More
Opera was invented at the end of the sixteenth century in imitation of the supposed style of delivery of ancient Greek tragedy, and, since then, operas based on Greek drama have been among the most important in the repertoire. This book provides an exceptionally wide-ranging and detailed overview of the relationship between the two genres. Since tragedies have played a much larger part than comedies in this branch of operatic history, the volume mostly concentrates on the tragic repertoire, but a chapter on musical versions of Aristophanes' Lysistrata is included, as well as discussions of incidental music, a very important part of the musical reception of ancient drama, from Andrea Gabrieli in 1585 to Harrison Birtwistle and Judith Weir in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Keywords:
opera,
ancient Greek tragedy,
operatic history,
Aristophanes,
Lysistrata,
Andrea Gabrieli,
Harrison Birtwistle,
Judith Weir,
tragedies
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199558551 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199558551.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Peter Brown, editor
Lecturer in Classics, Oxford University and Fellow of Trinity College
Suzana Ograjenšek, editor
Research Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge University
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