A Night in at the Opera: Media Representations of Opera (Arts Council Arts & Media S.) - Softcover

9780861964666: A Night in at the Opera: Media Representations of Opera (Arts Council Arts & Media S.)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0861964667 ISBN 13: 9780861964666

Publisher: University of Luton Press, 1994

What are the implications for opera and the opera house now that opera has become so popular on television and video, and why has cinema always been so much in love with opera?

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Synopsis:

What are the implications for opera and the opera house now that opera has become so popular on television and video, and why has cinema always been so much in love with opera? This book offers a range of accounts of how the popular arts have represented this high art form written by specialists in music, media and popular culture. Beginning with "Aria" (one of ten different films - or operas), the book surveys the whole field of films using opera, or relying on operatic motifs. It considers the fabulous investment made in the television "Tosca" and the idea of opera as television's national spectacle. It questions why the cult of "the three tenors" should be so much a mark of modern culture. The book raises issues which have bearings on the sociology of music and about its implications for television and video culture. It looks at the relationships between serious and popular music (and the desire of some composers to work in the latter whilst being engaged in more classical composition), and at the love-hate relationships between Hollywood and La Scala.

Finally, the book discusses the relationship between the diva and the gay, the tenor and national ideology, and the part opera plays in the society of the spectacle.

About the Author:

Jeremy Tambling teaches comparative literature at the University of Hong Kong.

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