Opera can reveal something fundamental about a film, and film can do the same for an opera, argues Marcia J. Citron. Structured by the categories of Style, Subjectivity, and Desire, this volume advances our understanding of the aesthetics of the opera/film encounter. Case studies of a diverse array of important repertoire including mainstream film, opera-film, and postmodernist pastiche are presented. Citron uses Werner Wolf’s theory of intermediality to probe the roles of opera and film when they combine. The book also refines and expands film-music functions, and details the impact of an opera’s musical style on the meaning of a film. Drawing on cinematic traditions of Hollywood, France, and Britain, the study explores Coppola’s Godfather trilogy, Jewison’s Moonstruck, Nichols’s Closer, Chabrol’s La Cérémonie, Schlesinger’s Sunday, Bloody Sunday, Boyd’s Aria, and Ponnelle’s opera-films.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“… a fascinating, detailed study…” –Choice
“In this follow-up to her Opera on Screen (CH, Sep’00, 38-0208), Citron (Rice Univ.) provides a fascinating, detailed study of the interrelationship between opera and film across several specific films and a number of the opera/films of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. The films discussed at length are the Godfather trilogy, Aria, La Cèrémonie, Moonstruck, Sunday Bloody Sunday, and The Closer. Many discussions center on diegetic versus nondiegetic uses of opera and intermediality, but the author explores a wide range of topics in the context of the particular film at hand. The chapter on opera/films considers camera work, film techniques that force differential focus, and various different points of view, particularly in comparison with a staged version of the same opera. This book will make readers want to view the films in question to consider the issues Citron explores and the subjective interpretations she employs. Even those who do not agree with her will find that they will never again view the films in the same way. Citron’s methodology can be applied to any musical genre, operatic or not. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.” –Online Choice
“Reccomended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.” -C.A. Traupman-Carr,Moravian College
“A cornucopia for lovers of opera and film, Citron’s book comes highly recommended.” -The Opera Journal
Book Description
Drawing on cinematic traditions of Hollywood, France, and Britain, this book investigates the relationship between opera and film.
About the Author
Marcia J. Citron is Lovett Distinguished Service Professor of Musicology at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. She is the author of Opera on Screen (2000), as well as numerous articles on the topic of opera and film, in journals including Musical Quarterly, Music and Letters, and the Journal of Musicology. Her other area of interest is women and gender in music, and she has written three books on this topic: Gender and the Musical Canon (1993), which won an award from the International Alliance for Women in Music; Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn (1987), which was awarded ‘Outstanding Academic Book’ by Choice magazine; and Cécile Chaminde: A Bio-Bibliography (1988).
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