Release Date:- 2024-09-03
Availability:- In Stock
Kind:- ebook
ā[Sharon] challenges the status quo and proposes radical new ways to present operas new and old. Expect insight, originality and some contentious views that will stimulate debate.ā āRichard Fairman, Financial Times, "Best Books of 2024"
From āthe most imaginative director in the USā (New York Times) comes this generational work with a vision for transforming opera into a powerhouse cultural phenomenon.
"This book builds a compelling roadmap for the future of opera, and how it can truly be accessible for everyone." āGustavo Dudamel
Known as operaās ādisrupter-in-residence,ā director Yuval Sharon has never adhered to the art formās conventions. In his many productions in both the United States and Europe, he constantly challenges the perception of opera as aloof by urging, among other things: performing operas in ānon-places,ā such as parking lots; encouraging the use of amplification; and shuffling the traditional structure of classic works, like performing Pucciniās La bohĆØme in reverse order, ending not with the tubercular heroine Mimiās death but with her first falling in love.
With A New Philosophy of Opera, Sharon has crafted a radical and refreshing book that can act as an introduction to the art form for the culturally curious, or as a manifesto for his fellow artists. In an engaging style that ranges from the provocative to the personal, Sharon offers a 360-degree view of the art form, from the audience experience to the artistās process; from its socially conscious potential to its economic reality; and from its practical to its emotional and spiritual dimensions.
Surveying the role of opera in the United States and drawing on his experiences from Berlin to Los Angeles, Sharon lays out his vision for an āanti-elite operaā that celebrates the imagination and challenges the status quo. With an illustrated and unconventional history of the art form (not following a straight line but tracing a fantastical ātime-curveā) weaving throughout the book, Sharon resists the notion of the opera as ādyingā and instead portrays it as a glorious chaos constantly being reborn and reshaped.
With its advocacy of opera as an āenchanted spaceā and its revolutionary message, A New Philosophy of Opera is itself a work of artāa living book with profound philosophical implicationsāthat will stand the test of time.
