Italian Opera Since 1945

First published in 1988. Italy the birthplace of opera in the late sixteenth century has in recent decades seen remarkable and vital musical growth with composers as diverse as Luciano Berio and Nino Rota Luigi Nono and Sylvano Bussotti Giacomo Manzoni Bruno Maderna and Salvatore Sciarrino. The musical theatre has figured prominently in the work of Italian composers during this period ranging from operas conceived in a traditional mode to works of a Music Theatre variety and in style from popular to avant-garde. In this book Raymond Fearn surveys this Italian musico-theatrical phenomenon in the period since the Second World War examining a wide range of works such as Nono's Intolleranza and Al Gran Sole Carico d'Amore Berio's Passaggio and Un re in ascolto Manzoni's Atomtod and La Sentenza and Castiglioni's Oberon and The King's Masque and places these developments within a cultural and theatrical context