Opera Seria Today: A Credo

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. INTRODUCTION 1
4. PART I. Literary Sources and Their Transformation into Opera
5. Dramatic Theory and the Italian Baroque Libretto 15
6. Mythological Subjects in Opera Seria 41
7. Ariosto and the Oral Tradition 54
8. Ariosto's Orlando and Opera Seria 64
9. Orlando in Seicento Venice: The Road Not Taken 87
10. Eighteenth-Century Orlando: Hero5 Satyr, and Fool 105
11. PART II. Venetian Opera in Its Cultural Milieu
12. Venetian Theaters during Vivaldi's Era 131
13. Costume in the Frescoes of Tiepolo and Eighteenth-Century Italian Opera 149
14. Baroque Manners and Passions in Modern Performance 170
15. Opera Criticism and the Venetian Press 179
16. PART III. The Practice of Opera Seria
17. Voice Register as an Index of Age and Status in Opera Seria 193
18. Cadential Structures and Accompanimental Practices in Eighteenth-Century Italian Recitative 211
19. Declamation and Expressive Singing in Recitative 233
20. Embellishing Eighteenth-Century Arias: On Cadenzas 258
21. PART IV. Vivaldi as Dramatic Composer
22. The Relationship between Text and Music in the Operas of Vivaldi 279
23. Vivaldi as Self-Borrower 308
24. Vivaldi's Orlando: Sources and Contributing Factors 327
25. PART V. Baroque Opera Today
26. Preparing the Critical Edition: An Interview with Alan Curtis 349
27. Opera Seria Today: A Credo 358
28. APPENDIX 367
29. Contributors 379
30. Index 383