Sign-In
Cart
Operatic Infrastructures: Materiality and Meaning in 1890s London, Paris, and New York
Hardcover
Series: Opera Lab: Explorations in History, Technology, and Performa
Technology & EngineeringOperaMusic Reference
ISBN13: 9780226846835
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: May 28 2026
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.80 Width: 5.90 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
An exploration of the fundamental relationship between opera and urban modernity in three iconic cities: London, Paris, and New York.
At the end of the nineteenth century, London, Paris, and New York were quintessential modern metropolises and vital centers for opera. In Operatic Infrastructures, Flora Willson examines opera's roots in the material worlds of these cities. Reaching beyond histories of opera as spectacle, she investigates the physical underpinnings of opera at the century's end as an inter-urban, multimedia network.
Operatic Infrastructures considers emergent technologies such as the telephone and the subway, but it also retrieves the hidden, forgotten, and otherwise effaced traces of systems such as storage facilities and colonial trade routes. It takes seriously the mundane aspects of materiality, from the blandest clichés of newspaper columns to the fine print of insurance certificates. In doing so, the book reveals just how far these interfaces with modern urban life reached into opera's own systems of meaning-making and performance in the 1890s--making it impossible to demarcate neatly between opera and its context. Without such operatic infrastructures, Willson shows, there would be no opera at all.
Also in
Opera
Puccini Without Excuses: A Refreshing Reassessment of the World's Most Popular Composer
Berger, William
Paperback
A Modern Guide to Old World Singing: Concepts of the Swedish-Italian and Italian Singing Schools
Jones, David L.
Paperback
Verdi With a Vengeance: An Energetic Guide to the Life and Complete Works of the King of Opera
Berger, William
Paperback
Music and Architecture in Harmony: Opera Houses and Concert Halls of Europe 1672-2022
Webb, Michael
Aujero Small, Thomas
Hardcover
A Night at the Opera: An Irreverent Guide to the Plots, the Singers, the Composers, the Recordings
Forman, Denis
Paperback
Great Singers on Great Singing: A Famous Opera Star Interviews 40 Famous Opera Singers on the Technique of Singing
Hines, Jerome
Paperback
Science and the Romantic Vision in Early Nineteenth-Century Opera
Mark a. Pottinger, Mark A.
Hardcover
The Toughest Show on Earth: The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera
Michener, Charles
Volpe, Joseph
Paperback
Wagner Without Fear: Learning to Love--And Even Enjoy--Opera's Most Demanding Genius
Berger, William
Paperback
Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan (Revised)
Gilbert, William Schwenck
Sullivan, Arthur Seymour
Paperback
Succeeding Puccini: The Operatic Career of Italo Montemezzi, 1875-1952
Mellace, Raffaele
Chandler, David
Hardcover
Music of the Night: Religious Influences and Spiritual Resonances in Operetta and Musical Theatre
Bradley, Ian
Paperback
Italian Opera Singing at the Time of Verismo: The Invention of the Modern Voice
Gentili, Barbara
Hardcover
The Dance and Opera Stage Manager's Toolkit: Protocols, Practical Considerations, and Templates
Kay, Michele
Studham, Susan Fenty
Paperback
The Wound That Will Never Heal: An Allegorical Interpretation of Richard Wagner's the Ring of the Nibelung
Heise, Paul Brian
Paperback
Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America
Waleson, Heidi
Paperback
Twenty-Four Songs and Arias in Spanish: From XV to XXI Centuries. For Medium-Low Voices
Caicedo, Patricia
Paperback
Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth-Century California and Beyond
Rao, Nancy Yunhwa
Paperback
Opera for Everyone: The Industry's Experiments with American Opera in the Digital Age
Steigerwald Ille, Megan
Paperback
The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan
Sullivan, Arthur
Gilbert, W. S. (William Schwenck)
Paperback
The Beginner's Guide to Opera Stage Management: Gathering the Tools You Need to Work in Opera
Ranno, Danielle
Paperback
Latin America and the Transports of Opera: Fragments of a Transatlantic Discourse
Díaz, Roberto Ignacio
Paperback
Auditioning in the 21st Century: An Essential Handbook for Those Auditioning and Working in the German-Speaking Theater 'Fest' System
Killmeier, William a.
Paperback
Entangled Histories: Opera and Cultural Exchange Between Vienna and the Italian States After Napoleon
Vellutini, Claudio
Hardcover
An Exploration of Compositional Technique in the Operas of Kaija Saariaho and Christian Jost
Kern, Friedrich Heinrich
Hardcover
Orfeo ed Euridice/Orphée et Eurydice: Italian and French Libretti
Moline, Pierre-Louis
Gluck, Christoph Willibald
De' Calzabigi, Ranieri
Paperback
Latin America and the Transports of Opera: Fragments of a Transatlantic Discourse
Díaz, Roberto Ignacio
Hardcover
La Traviata: Libretto, Italian and English Text and Music of the Principal Airs
Piave, Francesco Maria
Paperback