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Luigi Dallapiccola is widely considered a defining figure in twentieth-century Italian musical modernism, whose compositions bear passionate witness to the historical period through which he lived. In this book, Ben Earle focuses on three major works by the composer: the one-act operas Volo di notte ('Night Flight') and Il prigioniero ('The Prisoner'), and the choral Canti di prigionia ('Songs of Imprisonment'), setting them in the context of contemporary politics to trace their complex path from fascism to resistance. Earle also considers the wider relationship between musical modernism and Italian fascism, exploring the origins of musical modernism and investigating its place in the institutional structures created by Mussolini's regime. In doing so, he sheds new light on Dallapiccola's work and on the cultural politics of the early twentieth century to provide a history of musical modernism in Italy from the fin de siècle to the early Cold War.

Titles in The Listener’s Companion: A Scarecrow Press Music Series provide readers with a deeper understanding of key musical genres and the work of major artists and composers. Aimed at nonspecialists, each volume explains in clear and accessible language how to listen to works from particular artists, composers, and genres. Looking at the context in which the music appeared as well as its form, authors explore with readers the environments in which key musical works were written and performed—from a 1950s bebop concert at the Village Vanguard to a performance of Handel’s Messiah in eighteenth-century Germany. Along with his contemporaries Chopin and Wagner, Verdi is among the few composers whose place in the musical pantheon is based almost entirely upon the mastery of a single genre. This is largely owing to his staggering output in a career that lasted over fifty years. Several of his operas occupy the nucleus of the modern repertoire, and Verdi almost single-handedly maintained the Italian lyric tradition against the tide of Wagnerian music drama. In his final years, he virtually reinvented Italian opera. Indeed, Verdi’s life and music came to be so intimately associated with the Italian unification movement known as the Risorgimento that he is still revered as a great national figure in his homeland. In Experiencing Verdi: A Listener’s Companion, Donald Sanders combines biography with simple, concise musical analysis. Summarizing the evolution of Italian opera and the bel canto tradition that prevailed at the beginning of Verdi’s career, Sanders takes readers on a leisurely tour of eleven of Verdi’s most important operas and of the Manzoni Requiem and concludes with a look at Verdi’s influence on later composers like Giacomo Puccini, his place in the modern repertoire, and his role as an Italian patriot. With a timeline, glossary of basic musical terms, and selected reading and listening recommendations, Experiencing Verdi will engage opera lovers at all levels, from those just starting to listen, learn, and enjoy to musical devotees.

The first major biography of the impresario Domenico Barbaja, accompanying a new Naxos album of Barbaja and his operas.

Despite their undeniable importance, the leaders of the Fascist and Nazi youth organizations have received little attention from historians. In Shaping the New Man , Alessio Ponzio uncovers the largely untold story of the training and education of these crucial protagonists of the Fascist and Nazi regimes, and he examines more broadly the structures, ideologies, rhetoric, and aspirations of youth organizations in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Ponzio shows how the Italian Fascists' pedagogical practices influenced the origin and evolution of the Hitler Youth. He dissects similarities and differences in the training processes of the youth leaders of the Opera Nazionale Balilla, Gioventù Italiana del Littorio, and Hitlerjugend. And, he explores the transnational institutional interactions and mutual cooperation that flourished between Mussolini's and Hitler's youth organizations in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso is considered by many people the most famous opera singer of all time or \"The Matchless Singer\" for his unique and suggestive vocal timber. Although a man of humble origins, he managed to rise from poverty, thanks to his extraordinary intelligence and determination. From his debut in 1895 in Naples, until December 24, 1920, the tenor had a brilliant career with many performances and over 500 songs in his repertoire. This intense lifestyle went on until 1919, when the fortune that had always accompanied him began to fade and he entered a fast \"descending parable.\" In this study, we analyze Caruso's medical history during his last year of life: Through the study of the newspapers from the period and the statements reported on the tenor's many biographies, we tried to offer a detailed evaluation of the complex pathogenic chain of events that led to his death, impeding him from keeping to alleviate the heart-breaking nostalgia of many emigrants that felt in his singing the warmth of a too distant land.

What do the spirited and robust scores of Italian opera and the infinite joys of the country's food have in common? Rick Stein finds out in this entertaining special. Rossini, Puccini and Verdi were all passionate about the delights of the dining table: Puccini loved the simple dishes from his native Tuscany; Verdi had his own farm; and many extravagant recipes are named after Rossini. Looking at these three great Italian composers and talking to academics, singers and conductors, Rick uncovers the deep relationship between creativity and convivial cuisine.

Reviewed by Houman Barekat Drawing on a rich tradition of opera, poetry and music to supplement the obligatory military parades, the lavish celebrations that marked last year's 150th anniversary of Italian unification spoke to something altogether deeper than the political and economic contiguity of a nation state. [...]the Risorgimento's claim on Rome as the national capital played a crucial role in defining the relationship between the new state and the Papacy.