Singers of Italian Opera The History of a Profession [Paperback]

John Rosselli introduces all those singers, members of the chorus as well as stars, who have sung Italian opera from 1600 to the twentieth century.Despite the obvious risks, many singers slowly emancipated themselves from dependence on great patrons to pursue the dangerous freedom of the market. Their stories are included in this wide-ranging study of all the artists who have sung Italian opera from 1600 to the twentieth century.Despite the obvious risks, many singers slowly emancipated themselves from dependence on great patrons to pursue the dangerous freedom of the market. Their stories are included in this wide-ranging study of all the artists who have sung Italian opera from 1600 to the twentieth century.Adelina Patti was the most highly regarded singer in the 19th century. She earned nearly $5000 a night and had her own railway carriage; yet during the same period a minor comic singer would perform for the cost of his food and a pair of shoes to wear on stage. John Rosselli's wide-ranging study introduces all those singers, members of the chorus as well as stars, who have sung Italian opera from 1600 to the twentieth century. Singers are shown slowly emancipating themselves from dependence on great patrons and entering the dangerous freedom of the market. Securely rooted in painstaking scholarship and sprinkled with amusing anecdotes, this is a book to fascinate and inform opera fans at all levels.List of illustrations; Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction: a living tradition; 1. Musicians attending; 2. Castrati; 3. Women; 4. The coming of a market; 5. Training; 6. Pay; 7. Careers; 8. The age of the tenor; 9. The coming of mass society; Notes; Note on further reading; Index. Relating the four-century history of singers in Italian opera may seem a bit daunting in such a relatively brief number of pages, but Rosselli more than succeeds....Everyone loves a good story and there are many here. The scholarship is solid and the writing is excellent, never pl£-