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A wide-ranging look at the interplay of opera and political ideas through the centuriesThe Politics of Opera takes readers on a fascinating journey into the entwined development of opera and politics, from the Renaissance through the turn of the nineteenth century. What political backdrops have shaped opera? How has opera conveyed the political ideas of its times? Delving into European history and thought and an array of music by such greats as Lully, Rameau, and Mozart, Mitchell Cohen reveals how politics-through story lines, symbols, harmonies, and musical motifs-has played an operatic role both robust and sotto voce.Cohen begins with opera's emergence under Medici absolutism in Florence during the late Renaissance-where debates by humanists, including Galileo's father, led to the first operas in the late sixteenth century. Taking readers to Mantua and Venice, where composer Claudio Monteverdi flourished, Cohen examines how early operatic works like Orfeo used mythology to reflect on governance and policy issues of the day, such as state jurisdictions and immigration. Cohen explores France in the ages of Louis XIV and the Enlightenment and Vienna before and during the French Revolution, where the deceptive lightness of Mozart's masterpieces touched on the havoc of misrule and hidden abuses of power. Cohen also looks at smaller works, including a one-act opera written and composed by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Essential characters, ancient and modern, make appearances throughout: Nero, Seneca, Machiavelli, Mazarin, Fenelon, Metastasio, Beaumarchais, Da Ponte, and many more.An engrossing book that will interest all who love opera and are intrigued by politics, The Politics of Opera offers a compelling investigation into the intersections of music and the state.

Opera --- Political aspects --- History. --- Alessandro Striggio the Younger. --- Allusion. --- Ancient music. --- Aristocracy. --- Cambridge University Press. --- Cavalieri. --- Censure. --- Claudio Monteverdi. --- Comic opera. --- Composer. --- Consigliere. --- Council of Ten. --- Counter-Reformation. --- Criticism. --- Declamation. --- Despotism. --- Dido and Aeneas. --- Discourses on Livy. --- Don Giovanni. --- Duchy. --- Eloquence. --- Emilio de' Cavalieri. --- Eumaeus. --- Euridice (Peri). --- Florentine Camerata. --- French opera. --- Genre. --- Girolamo Mei. --- Holy Roman Emperor. --- Holy Roman Empire. --- House of Habsburg. --- Ideology. --- Idomeneo. --- Idomeneus. --- Intermedio. --- Irony. --- Italian opera. --- Jean-Philippe Rameau. --- Jews. --- Justus Lipsius. --- L'incoronazione di Poppea. --- La serva padrona. --- Lament. --- Le devin du village. --- Les Indes galantes. --- Libretto. --- Literature. --- Lorenzo Da Ponte. --- Louis XIV of France. --- Madame de Pompadour. --- Majesty. --- Mirrors for princes. --- Modernity. --- Monarchy. --- Monody. --- Motet. --- Muse. --- Music Is. --- Musician. --- Nevers. --- Niccolò Machiavelli. --- Nobility. --- Oligarchy. --- Opera buffa. --- Opera seria. --- Orpheus and Eurydice. --- Ottavio Rinuccini. --- Philosopher. --- Philosophy. --- Phrase (music). --- Playwright. --- Poetry. --- Political philosophy. --- Polyphemus. --- Popular sovereignty. --- Prerogative. --- Protestantism. --- Querelle des Bouffons. --- Querelle. --- Renaissance humanism. --- Republicanism. --- Rhetoric. --- Ruler. --- Satire. --- Singing. --- Singspiel. --- Sinon. --- Slavery. --- Sovereignty. --- Stanford University. --- Suetonius. --- Tacitus. --- The Indiscreet Jewels. --- The Magic Flute. --- The Marriage of Figaro. --- Theodor W. Adorno. --- V. --- Valet. --- Vincenzo Galilei. --- Writing.