Fandom, authenticity, and opera Mad acts and letter scenes in Fin-de-Siecle Russia /
A study of commercialized opera culture in Russia, exploring the 'melodramatic imagination'.
Saved in:
Main Authors: | |
---|---|
Published: |
|
Literature type: | Electronic Software eBook |
Language: | English |
Series: |
Palgrave studies in cultural and intellectual history
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: |
http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9781137023452 |
Summary: |
A study of commercialized opera culture in Russia, exploring the 'melodramatic imagination'. 'In this fascinating and powerfully written history of opera fans and celebrities in late imperial Russia, Anna Fishzon offers us an almost operatic landscape, filled with compelling stories and important arguments about modern public life, the commercialization of art, sexuality and gender, emotions (especially fantasy and desire), and the meanings of key cultural questions such as sincerity and selfhood. This is an essential and compelling contribution to our growing knowledge and understanding of the Russian experience at the end of the old regime and of the tumultuous world of the European fin de siecle more broadly.' - Mark D. Steinberg, Professor, Department of History, University of Illinois, USA 'This book is an original and unusually informative study of Russian opera and its fans in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Though this period is probably the best-studied in all of Russian history, Fishzon has found an unexplored view on it and discovered an untapped body of archival material. She focuses on fans, groupies, and sponsors of Russian private opera theaters, and she reads their documents by using interpretative concepts that are informed by the studies of mid- twentieth century Hollywood fandom. As it happens, this meeting between national cultures and historical periods has produced fascinating results. I enjoyed reading this book and eagerly recommend it to students of Russian and European music, theater, and culture.' - Alexander Etkind, Professor of Russian Literature and Cultural History, University of Cambridge, UK. |
Item Description: |
Electronic book text. Epublication based on: 9781137023445, 2013. |
Carrier Form: | 292 p. : 4 b&w, ill. |
ISBN: |
9781137023445 9781137023452 : 1137023457 : |
CLC: | J60-05 |
Contents: | Introduction 1. Entrepreneurs and the Public Mission of Russian Private Opera 2. Russia's New Celebrities: Off-stage Narrative and Performance 3. Deviant Audiences and the Feminization of Fandom 4. Authenticity in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, or, How the Gramophone Made Everyday Life Operatic 5. Fan Letters, Melodrama, and the Meaning of Love Epilogue. |