"This encyclopedia lists, describes and cross-references everything to do with American opera. The approximately 1750 entries range from ballad operas and composers of the 18th century to modern minimalists and video opera artists. Each opera entry consists of plot, history, premiere and cast, followed by a chronological listing of recordings, movies and videos"--Provided by publisher.

Excerpt from The American History and Encyclopedia of Music Opera, Vol. 1: With Introduction It is sometimes, indeed, frequently, advisable to study history backward, permitting the more intimate knowledge which we have of things in their present and familiar manifestations to throw light on the phases which those things presented long ago. Progress is not in a direct line, but in a spiral direction. The movement is onward, but ever and anon a point is reached which seems to make the conclusion of a cycle, and to be nearer the point of departure than any other point in the course. The principle is illustrated in the history of that mixed art form popularly called opera, and it is from this point that this historical and analytical study proceeds. Essentially, despite the immeasurably greater potency of expression which all its component elements have attained, it approaches the art form with which musical historians generally begin its story, more closely than it does the opera of only a century ago; i. e., the phase which the art form had reached after two centuries of development. This is true even in the simple matter of terminology. Since Wagner, composers have been averse to the term which sufficed them for two hundred years and have tried to discover one which should more specifically describe the mixed art form of music and drama. The term which Wagner invented. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

More than 3,000 alphabetically arranged entries cover more than 700 operas, with information on composers, librettists, singers, conductors, plots, opera houses, stage designers, and other subjects.

Excerpt from The American History and Encyclopedia of Music Opera, Vol. 1: With Introduction Aim of opera writers, they now had to shuffle off some of the fprmularies which had grown up in the service of musical beauty and stood in the way of the truthful dramatic expression, and thus we reach the age of reform, of which Gluck and Wagner are the shining lights. These men regenerators of the old quite as much as they were reformers of contemporaneous art - opened the way to the absolute freedom exercised by the composers of today, and give at least some measure of justification to the methods of the latest revolutionary, Richard Strauss, in whose Salome, music surrenders all its functions as an independent art, and becomes a mere adjunct of the drama; a part of the scene, an emotional voice in the service of the ugly as well as of the beautiful, realistic and delineative. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.