The Musical Language of Italian Opera, 1813-1859

William Rothstein is Professor of Music Theory at Queens College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He previously taught at Amherst College, Oberlin College, and the University of Michigan. He is author of Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music and co-author (with Charles Burkhart) of Anthology for Musical Analysis. He has written and lectured extensively on music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with special emphasis on musical rhythm, Schenkerian theory and analysis, and nineteenth-century Italian opera.

• PrefaceAcknowledgments Introduction: What is there to analyze? Part One: La Via ItalianaChapter 1. The Anvil ChorusChapter 2. Theoretical contexts I: Nineteenth-century theoryChapter 3. Theoretical contexts II: Schenker and RiemannChapter 4. Rhythm and meterChapter 5. Musical form Part Two: RossiniChapter 6. Rossini's mediantsChapter 7. Tonal coherence in Rossini's Italian operasChapter 8. Guillaume Tell Part Three: Between Rossini and VerdiChapter 9. Bellini and the new diatonicismChapter 10. Meyerbeer and the new chromaticismChapter 11. Around 1840: Mercadante and Donizetti Part Four: Verdi's Sedici AnniChapter 12. Ernani to Attila (1844-1846)Chapter 13. Rigoletto and Il trovatore (1851-1853)Chapter 14. Les vêpres siciliennes to Un ballo in maschera (1854-1859) Afterword: Verdi and His Predecessors Selected bibliographyIndex

To say that this book is highly anticipated is an understatement. Rothstein, a brilliant music theorist, engages with a vast array of past and present scholars, providing historical research and context for his operatic investigations. There is a lot of variety in this scholarly buffet—something for everyone's taste.