Donald Jay Grout

Donald Grout

Hermine Weigel Williams

"The fourth edition incorporates new scholarship that traces the most important developments in the evolution of musical drama. After surveying anticipations of the operatic form in the lyric theater of the Greeks, medieval dramatic music, and other forerunners, the book reveals the genre's beginnings in the seventeenth century and follows its progress to the present day."--Jacket.

A Short History of Opera

First Published in 1999, Hermine Weigel Williams’ study draws on more than thirty years of research to fill this noticeable lacuna , and presents here the first full scale life and works of the composer for over ninety years. Part One of the book surveys the biographical aspects of Conti’s career. Appointed court theorist at the age of nineteen, Conti was promoted to court composer in 1713-14. Williams examines Conti’s creative collaborations with some of the leading poet-librettists of the day, and the influence of his music that can be identified in works by Telemann, Bach and Handel. Part Two comprises close analyses of Conti’s compositions: his instrumental music, cantatas, operas, intermezzos, oratorios and sacred music. Williams reveals Conti as a composer who constantly experimented with a wide range of French, German and Italian ideas and techniques to create his own diverse musico-dramatic style.

Hermine Weigel Williams

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