"Nina Penner's Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater is a stimulating, accessible and engaging read for stage directors, conductors, singers, and opera managers.  She reminds us that 'opera is a medium for presenting stories' and that between facilitating the audiences' access to the original narrative of an opera and creating a unique personal expression, stage directors have a broad scope for their creativity. Opera managers, who have long worried about how to retain and build opera audiences in the 21st century, also get a clearer perspective on how to balance the reportorial choices between 'traditional' productions and those that seek to address present-day concerns. Broadly conceived and deeply researched, Penner demonstrates how the same piece of music can tell many different stories."

Through close analysis of examples from Gluck to Sondheim – and beyond – Nina Penner develops a detailed, flexible theory of how the stories of music dramas are conveyed to their audiences. Considering the roles of work and performance, orchestra and singer, and composer and character in how operas and musicals tell their stories, Penner's book is essential reading for any scholar with a serious interest in narrative or music drama.

Shaking up both musicology and (analytic) philosophy by putting them in dialogue, Nina Penner throws important new light on how sung drama tells stories. In the process she offers significant new insights for scholars in both fields—as well as for those studying literary narrative, theatre, performance, cinema, and adaptation. Her innovative choice to argue from both opera and musical theatre allows her to use astutely selected case studies to theorize staged sung drama as narrative in a lucid, accessible, indeed elegant manner.

"Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater makes a sustained contribution to interdisciplinarity in the arts: by exploring the intersection between analytic philosophy, literary criticism, theatre studies, and new musicology. Penner builds on existing scholarship/critical studies on opera and musical theatre [and her work] contains a wealth of insights into the repertoire of opera and [musical] theater."

Nina Penner's Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater is a stimulating, accessible and engaging read for stage directors, conductors, singers, and opera managers.  She reminds us that 'opera is a medium for presenting stories' and that between facilitating the audiences' access to the original narrative of an opera and creating a unique personal expression, stage directors have a broad scope for their creativity. Opera managers, who have long worried about how to retain and build opera audiences in the 21st century, also get a clearer perspective on how to balance the reportorial choices between 'traditional' productions and those that seek to address present-day concerns. Broadly conceived and deeply researched, Penner demonstrates how the same piece of music can tell many different stories.

With a musician's ear and a philosopher's conceptual rigor, Penner's evocative new account of musical drama charts the fascinating rhythms of character, narrative and point of view that pull opera and show audiences into the scene onstage. Mapping broad historical and cultural terrain — from Mozart to Wagner, Britten to Sondheim — Penner presents a fully performative understanding of opera and music theater, and a brilliant analysis of recent production styles. This lively book will engage scholars and performers, directors and set designers, or anyone ever captivated by a story told in music.

Through close analysis of examples from Gluck to Sondheim – and beyond – Nina Penner develops a detailed, flexible theory of how the stories of music dramas are conveyed to their audiences. Considering the roles of work and performance, orchestra and singer, and composer and character in how operas and musicals tell their stories, Penner's book is essential reading for any scholar with a serious interest in narrative or music drama.

With a musician's ear and a philosopher's conceptual rigor, Penner's evocative new account of musical drama charts the fascinating rhythms of character, narrative and point of view that pull opera and show audiences into the scene onstage. Mapping broad historical and cultural terrain — from Mozart to Wagner, Britten to Sondheim — Penner presents a fully performative understanding of opera and music theater, and a brilliant analysis of recent production styles. This lively book will engage scholars and performers, directors and set designers, or anyone ever captivated by a story told in music.

Shaking up both musicology and (analytic) philosophy by putting them in dialogue, Nina Penner throws important new light on how sung drama tells stories. In the process she offers significant new insights for scholars in both fields—as well as for those studying literary narrative, theatre, performance, cinema, and adaptation. Her innovative choice to argue from both opera and musical theatre allows her to use astutely selected case studies to theorize staged sung drama as narrative in a lucid, accessible, indeed elegant manner.

Nina Penner's Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater is a stimulating, accessible and engaging read for stage directors, conductors, singers, and opera managers.  She reminds us that 'opera is a medium for presenting stories' and that between facilitating the audiences' access to the original narrative of an opera and creating a unique personal expression, stage directors have a broad scope for their creativity. Opera managers, who have long worried about how to retain and build opera audiences in the 21st century, also get a clearer perspective on how to balance the reportorial choices between 'traditional' productions and those that seek to address present-day concerns. Broadly conceived and deeply researched, Penner demonstrates how the same piece of music can tell many different stories.