Paul Fryer

This collection of new essays explores the role played by women practitioners in the arts during the period often referred to as the Belle Epoque, a turn of the century period in which the modern media (audio and film recording, broadcasting, etc.) began to become a reality. Exploring the careers and creative lives of both the famous (Sarah Bernhardt) and the less so (Pauline Townsend) across a remarkable range of artistic activity from composition through oratory to fine art and film directing, these essays attempt to reveal, in some cases for the first time, women's true impact on the arts at the turn of the 19th century.

Essays on Influential Artists, Writers and Performers

Women in the Arts in the Belle Epoque

Damien Hirst provides the illustrations for Paul Fryer's first collection of poems, the two minds meeting in the middle as they survey their lives and those of their fellow men and women with an acute distillation of manners, cultures and prejudices. Drinking, fooling with toxic substances, loving and losing and loving again - the components of life in its fullness and beguiling ordinariness. This is Paul Fryer's first collection of poems, and it has been illustrated with keen insight by Damien Hirst. Together they have produced a beautiful diatribe against current complacencies that, remarkably, also shows a precious tolerance and love for their fellow men and women. The novelist and painter Harland Miller has written the foreword.Hirst and Fryer have concocted an acute distillation of manners, cultures and prejudices, a polemic even, that reflects a light suffused with a powerful disinterest, a disturbing sine qua non.Drinking, fooling with toxic substances, loving and losing and loving again, railing against authority, sinking one's head in one's hands at the ordinariness of life's decisions, these are but part of Don't Be So...It is also, remarkably, a book of love and curious humility. Paul Fryer deconstructs accepted conceits and replaces them with commonplace sensibilities that make you wonder how you ever got dressed in the morning, let alone go out in the world."I've had tougher dilemmas," Fryer says. "But I do find it a bit embarrassing to talk about the writing of poems. I remember my first effort at primary school; I was nine. It was a cheerful composition entitled 'The End Of The World'. Funnily enough I still know it by heart."

Don't Be So...

Nesta Jones

An edited collection of essays exploring the work and legacy of the academic and theatre-maker Clive Barker. Together, the essays trace the development of his work from his early years as an actor with Joan Littlewood's company, Theatre Workshop, via his career as an academic and teacher, through the publication of his seminal book, Theatre Games (Methuen Drama). The book looks beyond Barker's death in 2005 at the enduring influence of his work upon contemporary theatre training and theatre-making. Each writer featured in the collection responds to a specific aspect of Barker's work, focusing primarily on his early and formative career experiences with Theatre Workshop and his hugely influential development of Theatre Games. The collection as a whole thereby seeks to situate Clive Barker's work and influence in an international and multi-disciplinary context, by examining not only his origins as an actor, director, teacher and academic, but also the broad influence he has had on generations of theatre-makers.

Theatre Workshop and Theatre Games

Clive Barker and His Legacy

Olga Usova

A prominent star in both pre–Revolutionary Russia and New York, Lina Cavalieri, described as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” was one of the most frequently photographed personalities of her time. The cabaret performer, courtesan, and international star is documented in this, her first English-language biography. Researched from Russian archive sources, the book details her career from her early experiences in café-chantant and variety theatre in Paris, London, and St. Petersburg, through a highly successful operatic career in which she sang in many of the world's leading opera houses with such celebrities as Caruso and Ruffo. In 1914, Cavalieri became the first great opera singer to appear in silent movies, making her debut in Manon Lescaut and continuing with a series of successful films. Her life was ended by an Allied air raid in World War II. The book includes excerpts from period reviews, programmes, posters, and many previously unseen photographs. Appendices include a bibliography, filmography, discography, and chronology of stage performances (dates, venues, work, cast, conductor).

The Life of Opera’s Greatest Beauty, 1874–1944

Lina Cavalieri

A prominent star in both prendash;Revolutionary Russia and New York, Lina Cavalieri, described as "the most beautiful woman in the world," was one of the most frequently photographed personalities of her time. The cabaret performer, courtesan, and international star is documented in this, her first English-language biography. Researched from Russian archive sources, the book details her career from her early experiences in cafeacute;-chantant and variety theatre in Paris, London, and St. Petersburg, through a highly successful operatic career in which she sang in many of the world's leading opera houses with such celebrities as Caruso and Ruffo. In 1914, Cavalieri became the first great opera singer to appear in silent movies, making her debut in Manon Lescaut and continuing with a series of successful films. Her life was ended by an Allied air raid in World War II. The book includes excerpts from period reviews, programmes, posters, and many previously unseen photographs. Appendices include a bibliography, filmography, discography, and chronology of stage performances (dates, venues, work, cast, conductor).

The Life of Opera's Greatest Beauty, 1874-1944

This collection of essays explores the relationship between opera and the development of media technology from the late 19th to the early 21st century. Taking an international perspective, the contributing authors, each with extensive experience as scholars or practitioners of the art, cover a variety of topics including audio, video and film recording, contemporary critical responses, popular and “high brow” culture, live and recorded performance, lighting and performance technology, media marketing and advertising.

Essays on Art, Technology and Popular Culture

Opera in the Media Age

This collection of new essays explores the role played by women practitioners in the arts during the period often referred to as the Belle Epoque, a turn of the century period in which the modern media (audio and film recording, broadcasting, etc.) began to become a reality. Exploring the careers and creative lives of both the famous (Sarah Bernhardt) and the less so (Pauline Townsend) across a remarkable range of artistic activity from composition through oratory to fine art and film directing, these essays attempt to reveal, in some cases for the first time, women’s true impact on the arts at the turn of the 19th century.

Maria Pia Pagani

The 1916 silent film Cenere (Ashes) features the great Italian actress Eleonora Duse (1858–1924) in her only cinematic role. In her meditative approach to her craft, she reprised for the screen all the “mother roles” she had created for the theater. Marking the film’s 100th anniversary, this collection of essays brings together for the first time in English a range of scholarship. The difficulties involved in the making of the film are explored—Duse’s perfectionism was too advanced for the Italian movie industry of the 1910s. Her work is discussed within the creative, political and historical context of the silent movie industry as it developed in wartime Italy.

Paul Fryer

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