The Libretto

This guide to the modern musical covers the entire process of creating a show, from finding and working out the initial idea, through to the ways in which writers can market a finished show and get it produced. For the interested theatregoer and writers, it is written in a lively and user-friendly style and illustrated with numerous examples.

Next to Verdi's A‹da, Giacomo Puccini's La BohŠme is the most popular opera ever written. Performances of A‹da, La BohŠme, Carmen, and Don Giovanni ? the four operas most often performed ? constitute approximately 75 percent of the yearly schedule of operas throughout the world. This volume contains everything the opera goer needs to derive full satisfaction from La BohŠme except the musical score itself. Most important, it provides the complete text of the Italian libretto, just as it is actually sung; that is, where a singer repeats a phrase several times, each of the repetitions is given here. And facing the Italian text is a completely new translation of the libretto into modern, idiomatic English. In addition to the libretto and English translation, this edition provides a careful, concise summary of the plot of La BohŠme and a complete list of the opera's characters. There is also a brief, highly informative introduction by the translator that traces Puccini's masterpiece back to its source in Henry Murger's autobiographical novel La Vie BohŠme, illuminating the early history of the opera and its later development. Opera lovers can use this book with their own recordings of the opera, read it before attending a performance, or can easily take it along to the performance itself. Those who have regretted the lack of a good, authentic, readable edition of the Italian libretto of La BohŠme, and have complained of the stodginess of existing English translations, will recognize in this book a first-rate aid to the understanding of one of Puccini's most celebrated operas.

The dean of Broadway musical directors examines the dynamics of how the book, music and lyrics work together to create such hits as My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, Guys and Dolls, Hair, Pal Joey, West Side Story, Company, South Pacific, Threepenny Opera and Porgy and Bess. Howard Kissel, chief theater critic for the New York Daily News, extends the reach of Engel's subjects by bringing them up to date with commentary on such shows as A Chorus Line, Nine, Sunday in the Park with George, Rent, Working and Falsettos. Kissel offers a thoughtful history on how musical theater has evolved in the three decades since Engel wrote Words with Music (1972) and how Engel's classic work remains vital and illuminating today.

Charles Frieth, pre-eminent composer and conductor, is preparing for a performance of one of his works, Demonic Aubade. Obstinate and myopic, he is oblivious to the growing turmoil around him. As the performance draws near, the maestro is awoken to the chaos, and as Charles struggles to regain control of his life, a tragedy begins to unfold.

The soundtrack of the Christmas season for many music lovers, Messiah is performed annually by choral societies across the world. And so, perhaps unsurprisingly, many aspects of it have been explored by scholars over the years. The work is the subject of several listeners’ guides and there are a number of books and articles of various lengths that describe the biographical circumstances of the work’s formation and details of its many performances, many including lists of singers for each performance (an area that has itself spawned a whole field of research). There has been no extensive study of the creative process of Messiah, however, since 1969. This book seeks to redress this imbalance by providing a thorough investigation of the work’s creative process. Beginning with the creative process of the libretto, it examines the earliest sketches, Handel’s use of pre-existent material, alterations made to the autograph score, and the latest versions of movements. Each stage of composition is examined via primary source material, with particular reference to the autograph score and conducting score. Each chapter is formed as a case study and contains related discussion points for use in teaching or study settings.

Combining the insights of present-day biblical studies with those of Handelian studies, this book examines the libretti of ten of Handel's Israelite oratorios and evaluates the relationship between each libretto and the biblical story on which it is based.