Opera, Liberalism, and Antisemitism in Nineteenth-Century France: The Politics of Halévy's La Juive (Cambridge Studies in Opera) - Hardcover

Hallman, Diana R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521650860 ISBN 13: 9780521650861

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2002

Synopsis

This comprehensive critical study of the nineteenth-century French grand opéra La Juive (Paris Opéra, 1835) is a powerful and successful work by the leading dramatist and librettist Eugène Scribe, and Conservatoire-trained composer, Fromental Halévy. Hallman explores the politically charged messages of the opera within the context of French social and cultural history. The book addresses the opera's portrayal of religious intolerance and Jewish-Christian conflict in subject, setting and characterization, viewing the anticlerical thrust of its critique as a reminder of the historical abuses of an autocratic Church and State and as reflection of the era's liberal ideology. It also considers the portrayal of the central Jewish characters in light of literary stereotypes and contradictory, antisemitic attitudes toward Jews in French society.

About this title

Review:

'... a useful piece of scholarship with excellent appendices ...' History Today

'Hallman is successful in creating a vivid account of the complicated political and cultural diversity of mid-nineteenth-century Paris. ... a thoroughly researched and well-written text'. Nineteenth-Century Music Review

Book Description:

This is a comprehensive critical study of the nineteenth-century French grand opéra La Juive, by Halévy. Hallman explores the politically charged messages of the opera within the context of French social history and addresses the opera's portrayal of religious intolerance and antisemitic attitudes towards Jews in French society.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0521650860
• ISBN 13: 9780521650861
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 410