Michael Burden is Professor in Opera Studies at Oxford University, Fellow in Music at New College, and Chair, Faculty of Music Board. Wendy Heller is Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Princeton University. Jonathan Hicks is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Music Department at Kings College London. Ellen Lockhart is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.
"This book uncovers a surprising and unfamiliar world of
theatricality. A particular strength is the volume's concentration
on performance contexts. Acting, costuming, dancing, scenography
and, above all, music are given unprecedented treatment throughout
the book. The volume includes more than 70 rare or
difficult-to-find illustrations." --David Worrall, University of
Roehampton
"This illuminating collection of essays transports the reader to
the spectacular world of the London theatre in the early nineteenth
century and demonstrates how seemingly trivial entertainments
engaged with the world-historical events unfolding around them. The
strength of this collection lies in the careful interweaving of
theatre history, musicological analysis, and a thrilling
attentiveness to scenographic innovation. That this book is so
superbly illustrated and so cognizant of the importance of music
and dance is crucial to its effect, for one leaves the volume with
a very clear sense of how the theatre targeted all of the senses in
a multi-media whirlwind. The editors and contributors have a set a
new standard for dealing with a repertoire that has all too often
been ignored by social and cultural historians. Every essay
reconstructs the dynamic relation between performance and
historical consciousness and in so doing we are forced to think
about the transience of evidence and about what counts as history
in new ways." --Daniel O'Quinn, University of Guelph
"This sumptuously illustrated book provides a series of carefully
researched case studies on the uses of history in late-eighteenth
and early-nineteenth century theatre. Michael Burden's excellent
introduction indicates how a move towards factual accuracy and
realism, both in the historical material used and in the visual
representations of the past, through scenery and costume, was often
spurious and the productions linked as much to contemporary issues
and political agendas as to historical authenticity. This is very
much a key theme of several of the essays, whether exploring the
relevance of plays about Hofer 'the Tell of the Tyrol' to the
Chartist movement or Columbus's discovery of America (here
represented, somewhat anachronistically, by Peru) to the French
Revolution. The Saratoga Campaign, the Siege of Gibraltar and the
death of Captain Cook are all the subjects of essays examining
historical events reworked as ballets, operas and melodramas. As
well as a strong emphasis on context, contributors draw on
pictorial evidence--paintings, prints, political satires, scene
designs, music covers and playbills--and on the use of music and
songs, in order to investigate the theatrical impact of their
chosen topics. The memorialisation of Sir Walter Scott through
theatricality and spectacle and attempts to capture the vocal
delivery of John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons in Shakespeare are
among other subjects touched on in the book. Organised into
sections which focus on the theatrical creation of British history
on stage, the representation of national politics and identity, and
the mediation of empire, the exotic and exploration, all the essays
are of a very high standard, offering new and original insights.
This volume makes a significant and accessible contribution to our
understanding of the way theatre used history in the period
covered. Beautifully presented, it will appeal both to scholars and
to the general reader."--Jim Davis, University of Warwick
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