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Book Cover
E-book
Author Kreuzer, Gundula Katharina, 1975- author.

Title Curtain, gong, steam : Wagnerian technologies of nineteenth-century opera / Gundula Kreuzer
Published Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018]

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Description 1 online resource (xix, 348 pages) : illustrations
Contents Introduction : opera, staging, technology -- Wagner's Venusberg -- Curtain -- Gong -- Steam -- Epilogue : Wagnerian failure -- Notes
Summary "In this innovative book, Gundula Kreuzer argues for the foundational role of technologies in the conception, production, and study of nineteenth-century opera. She shows how composers increasingly incorporated novel audiovisual effects in their works and how the uses and meanings of the required machineries consistently changed, sometimes still resonating in contemporary stagings, performance art, and popular culture. Focusing on devices (which she dubs 'Wagnerian technologies') intended to amalgamate opera's various media while veiling their mechanics, Kreuzer offers a practical counternarrative to Wagner's idealist theories of total illusionism. Curtain, Gong, Steam's multifaceted exploration of the three titular technologies repositions Wagner as catalyst more than inventor in the history of operatic production. With its broad chronological and geographical scope, the book deepens our understanding of the material and mechanical conditions of historical operatic practice as well as of individual works, both well known and obscure"--Provided by publisher
Analysis 19th century art
19th century music
19th century opera
19th century
20th century
acoustics
architecture
art history
artistic
audiovisual
composer
composition
french opera
german opera
inventor
music history
musical composition
opera
performance art
pop culture
popular culture
popular music
stage crew
technology
theatre
wagner
wagnerian technology
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on November 28, 2018)
Subject Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883 -- Aesthetics.
SUBJECT Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883 fast
Subject Opera and technology -- History -- 19th century
Opera -- Production and direction -- History -- 19th century
Opera -- Stage-setting and scenery -- History -- 19th century
PERFORMING ARTS -- Theater -- General.
MUSIC -- Genres & Styles -- Opera.
Aesthetics
Opera and technology
Opera -- Production and direction
Opera -- Stage-setting and scenery
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2017056145
ISBN 9780520966550
0520966554