Blockbusters of Victorian Theater, 1850-1910

by Paul Fryer
Blockbusters of Victorian Theater, 1850-1910
Author: Paul Fryer
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2023-11-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476649421
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This edited collection of essays details a wide-ranging selection of some of the most sensationally successful theatre productions of the long Victorian era, the real "blockbusters" of the age. Ranging from the world of operetta and music hall to spectacular drama and sensational melodrama, the productions included provide the reader with definitive proof that the phenomenon of the "smash hit" show is not restricted to modern Broadway. This is a world that encompassed the ground-breaking stage technology of Ben Hur, the wide political impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin and the sheer creative originality of L'Enfant Prodigue. Supporting the "star" system, productions featured some of the greatest names of the period - Sir Henry Irving, Sir Johnston Forbes Robertson, James O'Neill and Dion Boucicault. This was the very dawning of a new media age, which saw many of the productions transfer to the new world of silent cinema for the very first time

Singing Utopia

by Ben Macpherson
Singing Utopia
Author: Ben Macpherson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2024-12-03
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0197557635
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Singing Utopia is an original study of voice in musical theatre. Rather than focusing on how actors sing or analysing voices using established approaches found in opera studies, this book offers readers ways to understand musical theatre voices from a cultural perspective. It argues that musical theatre singing allows listeners and audiences to escape their everyday lives; and that voices can 'be' utopian. It then considers what this means and uncovers some paradoxes and difficulties in this idea. Introducing a new set of terms, it provides a way to listen to, think about, and even perform, voice in popular musical theatre.

“Don’t Forget The Pierrots!'' The Complete History of British Pierrot Troupes & Concert Parties

by Tony Lidington
“Don’t Forget The Pierrots!'' The Complete History of British Pierrot Troupes & Concert Parties
Author: Tony Lidington
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2022-09-30
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1000686191
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• The book demonstrates how a vernacular British performance form emerged as a hybrid of forms from Afro-American and minstrel, as well as French mime and Italian commedia dell’arte roots. • Theatre history is an essential part of theatre and drama courses across the UK and would be recommended reading. • There is no comparable book which makes critical analysis of British pierrot troupes and concert parties in existence – the only ones that do exist on the specific topic are written as reminiscence and anecdote.

Voice Studies

by Konstantinos Thomaidis
Voice Studies
Author: Konstantinos Thomaidis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2015-05-22
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317611020
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Voice Studies brings together leading international scholars and practitioners, to re-examine what voice is, what voice does, and what we mean by "voice studies" in the process and experience of performance. This dynamic and interdisciplinary publication draws on a broad range of approaches, from composing and voice teaching through to psychoanalysis and philosophy, including: voice training from the Alexander Technique to practice-as-research; operatic and extended voices in early baroque and contemporary underwater singing; voices across cultures, from site-specific choral performance in Kentish mines and Australian sound art, to the laments of Kraho Indians, Korean pansori and Javanese wayang; voice, embodiment and gender in Robertson’s 1798 production of Phantasmagoria, Cathy Berberian radio show, and Romeo Castellucci’s theatre; perceiving voice as a composer, listener, or as eavesdropper; voice, technology and mobile apps. With contributions spanning six continents, the volume considers the processes of teaching or writing for voice, the performance of voice in theatre, live art, music, and on recordings, and the experience of voice in acoustic perception and research. It concludes with a multifaceted series of short provocations that simply revisit the core question of the whole volume: what is voice studies?

Scotland and the Music Hall, 1850-1914

by Paul Maloney (M.Phil.)
Scotland and the Music Hall, 1850-1914
Author: Paul Maloney (M.Phil.)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:
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Music hall reflected the lifestyles and preoccupations of working people in a way that only television in the modern era has done since. While London dominated the wider British music hall, Glasgow was the centre of a vigorous Scottish performing culture developed in a Presbyterian society with a very different experience of industrial urbanisation. This book explores all aspects of the Scottish music hall industry, from the lives and professional culture of performers and impresarios to the place of music hall in Scottish life. It explores issues of national identity in terms of Scottish audiences' responses to the promotion of imperial themes in songs and performing material, and in the version of Scottish identity projected by Lauder and other kilted acts at home and abroad.