Table of Contents

Notes on contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction Mary Hunter and James Webster; Part I. Historical and Literary Contexts: 1. Goldoni, opera buffa, and Mozart's advent in Vienna Daniel Heartz; 2. Lo specchio francese: Viennese opera buffa and the legacy of French theatre Bruce Alan Brown; 3. Il re alla caccia and Le roi et le fermier: Italian and French treatments of class and gender Marvin Carlson; 4. Mozart and eighteenth-century comedy Paolo Gallarati; Part II. Social and Generic Meanings: 5. The sentimental muse of opera buffa Edmund J. Goehring; 6. The biology lessons of opera buffa: gender, nature, and Bourgeois society on Mozart's buffa stage Tia Denora; 7. Bourgeois values and Opera Buffa in 1780's Vienna Mary Hunter; 8. Opera seria? Opera buffa? Genre and style as sign Marita P. McLymonds; 9. Figaro as misogynist: on aria types and aria rhetoric Ronald J. Rabin; 10. The alternative endings of Mozart's Don Giovanni Michael F. Robinson; 11. Don Giovanni: recognition denied Jessica Waldoff; Part III. Analytical and Methodological Issues: 12. Analysis and dramaturgy: reflections towards a theory of Opera Sergio Durante; 13. Understanding opera buffa: analysis = interpretation James Webster; 14. Operatic ensembles and the problem of the Don Giovanni sextet John Platoff; 15. Buffo roles in Mozart's Vienna: tessitura and tonality as signs of characterization Julian Rushton; List of works cited; Index.

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An examination of the world of Vienna and the opera buffa in the eighteenth-century.

Reviews

'… an enthralling collection of essays by a distinguished group of international scholars … will give any reader a deeper knowledge and understanding of Mozart's comic operas and of the genius who created them.' Scenaria