Puccini's Turandot: The End of the Great Tradition

by William Ashbrook and Harold Powers

Book Overview

Unfinished at Puccini's death in 1924, Turandot was not only his most ambitious work, but it became the last Italian opera to enter the international repertory. In this colorful study two renowned... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691027129
• ISBN13: 9780691027128
• Release Date: April 1991
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

a good book--if you're smart enough

The book begins with a philosophical discussion of different styles of opera--comedy, tragedy, melodrama, verismo. I was completely lost during that chapter.The bulk of the book goes over the opera with a fine-tooth comb. I thought I knew the opera well, but through much of this discussion, I could not understand which passage in the opera the author was referring to. He gives musical examples, but not often enough.The discussion on the last 59 pages of the opera is interesting, however. He points out which contributions were from Puccini and which were from Alfano.If you don't know every word and every note of the opera, be prepared to hold this book in one hand and a score of the opera in the other hand.