The performance of opera arias composed by George Frideric Handel in our modern day is complicated by the necessity of including improvised embellishments, which were a standard component of the eighteenth-century genre of opera seria. Furthermore, discussions concerning the concepts of historical authenticity and performance practice muddle the issue of preparing Handel's music for presentation. In recent years scholars have prepared ornamented versions of select Handel arias in consultation with eighteenth-century performance practice treatises and other contemporary materials that provide considerable insight into the purpose and execution of ornamentation in performances Handel himself oversaw. What remains relatively unexplored, however, is the relationship between eighteenth-century embellishments and the Baroque affections, or passions. The affections, or passions, were rationalized emotional states derived from the Greek and Latin doctrines of rhetoric and oratory which Baroque composers sought to evoke and express in their music. This study explores the correlation of Baroque affections with ornaments as a legitimate approach to the composition of embellishments for Handel's opera arias. The tradition of rhetoric, the conventions of late Baroque Italian opera seria as a form, and the practice of ornamentation as an integral part of these conventions are examined. The study also provides a survey of eighteenth-century literature concerning the relationship of the musical representation of affects and ornamentation. Lastly, a review of Handel's operatic career and of the plots of the Agrippina, Rinaldo and Rodelinda will provide a context for the preparation of "affective" ornamented versions of six arias from these operas. In closing, a brief discussion of the early music movement and of the debates surrounding the use of the term "authentic" in relation to historic performance practices will illuminate the relevance of the relationship between affect and ornament to twenty-first century performances.

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The performance of opera arias composed by George Frideric Handel in our modern day is complicated by the necessity of including improvised embellishments, which were a standard component of the eighteenth-century genre of opera seria. Furthermore, discussions concerning the concepts of historical authenticity and performance practice muddle the issue of preparing Handel's music for presentation. In recent years scholars have prepared ornamented versions of select Handel arias in consultation with eighteenth-century performance practice treatises and other contemporary materials that provide considerable insight into the purpose and execution of ornamentation in performances Handel himself oversaw. What remains relatively unexplored, however, is the relationship between eighteenth-century embellishments and the Baroque affections, or passions. The affections, or passions, were rationalized emotional states derived from the Greek and Latin doctrines of rhetoric and oratory which Baroque composers sought to evoke and express in their music. This study explores the correlation of Baroque affections with ornaments as a legitimate approach to the composition of embellishments for Handel's opera arias. The tradition of rhetoric, the conventions of late Baroque Italian opera seria as a form, and the practice of ornamentation as an integral part of these conventions are examined. The study also provides a survey of eighteenth-century literature concerning the relationship of the musical representation of affects and ornamentation. Lastly, a review of Handel's operatic career and of the plots of the Agrippina, Rinaldo and Rodelinda will provide a context for the preparation of "affective" ornamented versions of six arias from these operas. In closing, a brief discussion of the early music movement and of the debates surrounding the use of the term "authentic" in relation to historic performance practices will illuminate the relevance of the relationship between affect and ornament to twenty-first century performances.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2005. / Thesis research directed by School of Music. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 245-250).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 15, 2009). Advisor: Kazadi wa Mukuna. Keywords: Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, music journalism, 19th-century Vienna, concert life, Viennese opera. Includes bibliographical references (p. 236-243).

Thesis (doctoral)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen, 1936. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-125).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Chicago, 1987. / Typescript. "Musical examples": leaves 545-656. "Catalogue of extant seventeenth-century Spanish theatrical songs": leaves 457-544. Bibliography: leaves 657-674.

Inaug.--diss.--Berlin. / Lebenslauf. Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-136) and index.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Literatura. / Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-24T07:48:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 266531.pdf: 4722395 bytes, checksum: 3fdde5c85b3d38a1fa1b94bdac3119be (MD5) / Esta dissertação pretende ser uma análise multiangular da ópera Turandot, de Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). Deixada incompleta pelo compositor e encenada pela primeira vez em 1926, esta ópera é vista pelos musicólogos William Ashbrook e Harold Powers como marco do fim da grande tradição operística da Itália. O trabalho considera o entrelaçamento das convenções musicais e das convenções discursivas da partitura músico-textual de Turandot, a fim de esclarecer como analogias, referências e contradições musicais podem contribuir para a eficácia da narrativa verbal. O estudo de Turandot levou à reflexão da ópera como gênero e a dissertação está organizada pela gradual exploração das camadas da obra, da mais externa, a ópera em geral, até a reflexão sobre a psicologia de suas personagens, passando pela influência mútua entre música e narrativa nas idiossincrasias de Turandot como construção músico-literária singular. This paper intends to be an analysis from many angles of the opera Turandot, by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). Left incomplete by its composer and taken to the stage for the first time in 1926, this opera is regarded by musicologists William Ashbrook and Harold Powers as the ending of Italy's great operatic tradition. This work considers the intertwining of musical and speech conventions from Turandot's musical and textual score, with the objective of clarifying how musical analogies, references and contradictions may contribute to verbal narrative's effectiveness. The analysis of Turandot led to the reflection of opera as genre, so the paper is organized according to the gradual exploring of that opera's layers, from the most external - that is, the opera in general - to the reflection over its characters' psychology, passing by the mutual influence between music and narrative in Turandot's idiosyncrasies as a musical-literary unique construction.

My work is about the history of Slovak opera and theatre, since the first written records and live performances. I was also interested in the history of slovak theatre and it´s buldings, the first instances of slovak opera, and the rise of the Slovak National Theatre. The end of my work belongs to, in my opinion, two of the most important initiators of slovak theatre.