Harrison Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus
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A01=Jonathan Cross
act
Act I
Act II
Act III
allegorical
Allegorical Flower
Author_Jonathan Cross
Background Chord
Birtwistle's Music
birtwistles
Birtwistle’s Music
Careful Proportions
Category=AVLF
class
contemporary opera analysis
duet
electronic music integration
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Euridice's Death
Euridice’s Death
Fantasy Section
Fossil Shell
Harrison Birtwistle
love
Love Duet
lyric theatre innovation
mellers
music
myth reception studies
opera structural analysis methodology
Orpheus Myth
Orpheus Singer
Orpheus Story
Orpheus Und Eurydike
Passing Clouds
Peter Zinovieff
pitch
Pitch Class
Plucked Instruments
Pomegranate Tree
Post-war
RIS
Short Aria
time memory identity themes
twentieth-century musicology
wilfrid
Product details
- ISBN 9780754653837
- Weight: 460g
- Dimensions: 153 x 219mm
- Publication Date: 28 Nov 2009
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Hailed at its premiere at the London Coliseum in 1986 as the most important musical and theatrical event of the decade, The Mask of Orpheus is undoubtedly a key work in Harrison Birtwistle's output. His subsequent stage and concert pieces demand to be evaluated in its light. Increasingly, it is also viewed as a key work in the development of opera since the Second World War, a work that pushed at the boundaries of what was possible in lyrical theatre. In its imaginative fusion of music, song, drama, myth, mime and electronics, it has become a beacon for many younger composers, and the object of wide critical attention. Jonathan Cross begins his detailed study of this 'lyric tragedy' by placing it in the wider context of the reception of the Orpheus myth. In particular, the significance of Orpheus for the twentieth century is discussed, and this provides the backdrop for an examination of Birtwistle's preoccupation with the story in a variety of works across his creative life. The sources and genesis of The Mask of Orpheus are explored. This is followed by a close reading of the work's three acts, analysing their structure and meaning, investigating the relationship between music, text and drama, drawing on Zinovieff's textual drafts and Birtwistle's compositional sketches. The book concludes by suggesting a range of contexts within which The Mask of Orpheus might be understood. Its central themes of time, memory and identity, loss, mourning and melancholy, touch a deep sensibility in late-modern society and culture. Interviews with the librettist and composer round off this important study.
Jonathan Cross is Professor of Musicology at Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK
