Front cover image for Monstrous opera : Rameau and the tragic tradition

Monstrous opera : Rameau and the tragic tradition

One of the foremost composers of the French Baroque operatic tradition, Rameau is often cited for his struggle to steer lyric tragedy away from its strict Lullian form, inspired by spoken tragedy, and toward a more expressive musical style. In this fresh exploration of Rameau's compositional aesthetic, Charles Dill depicts a much more complicated figure: one obsessed with tradition, music theory, his own creative instincts, and the public's expectations of his music. Dill examines the ways Rameau mediated among these often competing values and how he interacted with his critics and with the public. The result is a sophisticated rethinking of Rameau as a musical innovator
Print Book, English, ©1998
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., ©1998
xx, 197 pages : music ; 25 cm.
9780691044439, 0691044430
37437552
Monstrous opera
Different tragedies
Rameau's twins
Rameau mise-en-scene
In the mirror
WJC Memorial to Barry Shongo.