Mozart and His Operas |
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Author:
David Cairns
By University of California Press
Average Customer Rating: 
List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $22.52
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Product Description
David Cairns--winner of the Whitbread Biography Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction--has spent his life immersed in Mozart's music, both as a performer and as a listener. This intimate biography sheds new and important light on the composer by placing his operas in the context of his life and his complete musical output. Mozart's unusual childhood as a musical prodigy touring Europe as a performer from an early age is well known. But even more remarkable is that the genius grew up to produce works of increasing maturity and originality. Cairns unravels the many myths surrounding Mozart to reveal the opinionated, passionate, and exceptionally intelligent man behind the legend.
Cairns shows that familiarity with the operas can transform our perception of Mozart's art. He demonstrates that the composer's approach to composition was that of a consummate dramatist. Using the operas as his guide, he traces the steady deepening of Mozart's musical style from his beginnings as a child prodigy, through his coming of age with, in Cairns's opinion, the most Romantic and forward-looking of all Mozart's operas, Idomeneo. He discusses Mozart's later genius as displayed in the three comic operas The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, and in The Magic Flute, the final and greatest triumph of his career.
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talent that put the rest of 1787 to shame, 2008-12-12
Some people can paint such an active picture of the way things are ludicrous that the people who only do as well as they can get left in the dust.
Fun and informative, 2006-08-26
Cairns does a great job revealing all sorts of detail about each opera while developing some very compelling themes across operas. He is a very accessible and interesting writer, who combines research, the music, and the biographical tidbits all very well. I really recommend this book.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.1092
EAN: 9780520228986
ISBN: 0520228987
Label: University of California Press
Manufacturer: University of California Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 301
Publication Date: 2006-04-01
Publisher: University of California Press
Studio: University of California Press |
