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Book Description
Filmmakers have always been fascinated by opera. Long before the birth of the talkies, pioneers were trying to make sound films of operatic arias. Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 Carmen, starring the reigning queen of the Met, Geraldine Farrar, made his name and turned her into one of the silver screen's earliest stars. This fascinating study of opera within the history of cinema, charts the great filmmaker's obsession with this most glamorous medium and its stars, from Cecil B. DeMille to Pavarotti. Readers will learn how filmmakers have popularized operas on the screen through presenting complete operas, operettas, and operatic arias, and made opera's stars like Caruso, Chaliapin, Gigli, Tauber, and Pavarotti into film stars. Opera films made for television complete the picture, as Opera on Film demonstrates the hitherto unrecognized importance of opera in cinema history and recounts some of the explosive incidents that occurred between diva and director.
About the Author
Richard Fawkes is a film director and writer. His directing credits include the award-winning British television series, Tom Keating on Painters, and most recently the Original Three Tenors, a TV documentary about Caruso, Gigli and Bjorling. He is the author of History of Opera (Naxos Audio Books.)
Opera on Film,Richard Fawkes,Duckworth Publishing,0715629433,Film & Video - History & Criticism,General,Genres & Styles - Opera,Music,Pop Arts / Pop Culture
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