Fabrizio Della Seta

Bellini is the most complete monograph ever published to-date on the life and legacy of the composer from Catania. His achievements, presented in the historical-social context of his time, explore his relationships with educational institutions, the theatrical production system and the literary world, and impresarios, publishers, librettists, and other musicians alike. Each chapter is dedicated to a period of Bellini's life and the cities in which he worked: Catania, Naples, Milan, Venice, London, and Paris. Of Bellini's ten operas, only three are well-loved by the public; the other seven are rarely performed, and thus, are relatively unknown. Bellini provides essential information on these lesser-known works, offering summaries of their synopses as well as discussions of various number of significant scenes and passages therein. Fabrizio Della Seta also explores the relationships between Bellini and the most famous singers of his time, such as Giuditta Pasta and Giovanni Battista Rubini, and the role his contemporaries played in shaping his musical style. Through a close, in-depth exploration of Bellini's operas, chamber music, and sacred and instrumental music, Della Seta positions the composer not only as a creator of memorable melodies, but as a first-rate dramatist whose musical structures were imbued with cultural meaning and historical significance.

Opera often seems to arouse either irrational enthusiasm or visceral dislike. Such madness, as Goethe wrote, is indispensable in all theater, and yet in practice, sentiment and passion must be balanced by sense and reason. Exploring this tension between madness and reason, "Not without Madness" presents new analytical approaches to thinking about eighteenth - and nineteenth-century opera through the lenses of its historical and cultural contexts. In these twelve essays, Fabrizio Della Seta explores the concept of opera as a dramatic event and an essential moment in the history of theater. Examining the meaning of opera and the devices that produce and transmit this meaning, he looks at the complex verbal, musical, and scenic mechanisms in parts of "La sonnambula", "Ernani", "Aida", "Le nozze di Figaro", "Macbeth", and "Il trovatore". He argues that approaches to the study of opera must address performance, interpretation, composition, reception, and cultural ramifications. Purely musical analysis does not make sense unless we take into account music's dramatic function. Containing many essays available for the first time in English, Not without Madness bridges recent divisions in opera studies and will attract musicologists, musicians, and opera lovers alike.