Since its inception; French opera has embraced dance; yet all too often operatic dancing is treated as mere decoration. Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera exposes the multiple and meaningful roles that dance has played; starting from Jean-Baptiste Lullys first opera in 1672. It counters prevailing notions in operatic historiography that dance was parenthetical and presents compelling evidence that the divertissement - present in every act of every opera - is essential to understanding the work. The book considers the operas of Lully - his lighter works as well as his tragedies - and the 46-year period between the death of Lully and the arrival of Rameau; when influences from the commedia dellarte and other theatres began to inflect French operatic practices. It explores the intersections of musical; textual; choreographic and staging practices at a complex institution - the Acadeacute;mie Royale de Musique - which upheld as a fundamental aesthetic principle the integration of dance into opera.
2016-09-13 2016-09-13File Name: B01M9FBVFY
Review
