Singers of Italian Opera: The History of a Profession - gebunden oder broschiert

Adelina Patti was the most highly rewarded singer in history. She earned nearly $5000 a night and had her own railway carriage. Yet 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 present. Where did they come from? How were they trained? What did they earn, and what pressures shaped their careers? Singers are shown slowly emancipating themselves from dependence on great patrons and entering the dangerous freedom of the market. The castrati who dominated eighteenth-century opera turn out to be more conscientious and professional than their previous reputation as extravagant, vain creatures has suggested. The book examines the sexist prejudices against them and against women singers - who in the early days of opera were presumed to be courtesans and sometimes were. But for women, opera provided one of the very few professional and economic opportunities. Securely rooted in painstaking scholarship and sprinkled with amusing anecdote, this is a book to fascinate and inform opera fans at all levels.