Ideology in Britten's Operas

J. P. E. Harper-Scott (Royal Holloway, University of London)

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English

Cambridge University Press
06 September 2018

Theory of music & musicology; 20th century & contemporary classical music; Opera; Musical scores, lyrics & libretti

Series: Music since 1900

This thematic examination of Britten's operas focuses on the way that ideology is presented on stage. To watch or listen is to engage with a vivid artistic testament to the ideological world of mid-twentieth-century Britain. But it is more than that, too, because in many ways Britten's operas continue to proffer a diagnosis of certain unresolved problems in our own time. Only rarely, as in Peter Grimes, which shows the violence inherent in all forms of social and psychological identification, does Britten unmistakably call into question fundamental precepts of his contemporary ideology. This has not, however, prevented some writers from romanticizing Britten as a quiet revolutionary. This book argues, in contrast, that his operas, and some interpretations of them, have obscured a greater social and philosophical complicity that it is timely - if at the same time uncomfortable - for his early twenty-first-century audiences to address.

By: J. P. E. Harper-Scott (Royal Holloway University of London)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 253mm, Width: 180mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 860g
ISBN: 9781108416368
ISBN 10: 1108416365
Series: Music since 1900
Pages: 348
Publication Date: 06 September 2018
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Part I. Mappa Mundi: 1. Defining ideology; 2. Ideological narratives; Part II. The Ship of State: 3. From manifest violence to its historical sediment; 4. The occultation of history; Part III. New World: 5. Women and children; 6. A shadow falls on castle walls.

J. P. E. Harper-Scott is Professor of Music History and Theory at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published extensively on music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a particular focus on twentieth-century British music.

Reviews for Ideology in Britten's Operas

'The author is interested in Britten's ideology and studies this by focusing on the origins, nature, and structure of the ideas in the operas. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals.' R. Pitts, Choice '... deeply original and brilliantly wrought ... Ideology in Britten's Operas is an intellectually stimulating achievement-agile in critical-theoretical perspective, musical in its score analyses, and engaging to read. It is also an ambitious book, seeking in Britten's operas a testing-ground for a broader ideologically framed criticism.' Philip Rupprecht, Music and Letters