Valuing Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera Fantasias for Woodwind Instruments: Trash Music

by Rachel N. Becker

Overview

This book approaches opera fantasias – instrumental works that use themes from a single opera as the body of their virtuosic and flamboyant material – both historically and theoretically, concentrating on compositions for and by woodwind-instrument performers in Italy in the nineteenth century.

Important overlapping strands include the concept of virtuosity and its gradual demonization, the strong gendered overtones of individual woodwind instruments and of virtuosity, the distinct Italian context of these fantasias, the presentation and alteration of opera narratives in opera fantasias, and the technical and social development of woodwind instruments. Like opera itself, the opera fantasia is a popular art form, stylistically predictable yet formally flexible, based heavily on past operatic tradition and prefabricated materials. Through archival research in Italy, theoretical analysis, and exploration of European cultural contexts, this book clarifies a genre that has been consciously stifled and societal resonances that still impact music reception and performance today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032491769
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/29/2024
Series:	Routledge Research in Music
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rachel N. Becker is Assistant Professor of Musicology and Oboe at Boise State University, USA. She previously taught at the University of Cambridge, UK. Rachel’s research focuses on issues of genre, virtuosity, and gender. She has published on musical ecphrasis and on gendering of woodwind instruments, and she remains active internationally as an oboist.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: The opera fantasia in musicological context 

Chapter 2: The Italian context 

Chapter 3: Genre theory and the opera fantasia 

Chapter 4: Gender implications of the opera fantasia 

Chapter 5: A return to musical narrative through the opera fantasia 

Chapter 6: Opera fantasias on Verdi’s Rigoletto, Il trovatore, and Un ballo in maschera 

Conclusion