Review (PDF) Handel's Bestiary: In Search Of Animals In Handel's Operas
When acclaimed novelist Donna Leon is not conjuring up tales of crime and corruption in Venice, or reveling in delicious cuisine, she is listening to music. For Leon, patron of conductor Alan Curtis and his celebrated orchestra Il Complesso Barocco, that usually means the work of her favorite composer, George Frideric Handel.Over the years, Leon has noticed that the great musician filled his operas with arias that make reference to animals; rich in symbolism, the perceived virtues and vices of the lion, bee, nightingale, snake, elephant, and tiger, among others, resonate in his works. In Handel’s Bestiary, Leon draws on her love of Handel and her expertise in medieval bestiaries—illustrated collections of animal stories—to assemble a bestiary of her own. Twelve chapters trace twelve animals through history, mythology, and the arias. Each is joined by whimsical original illustrations by German painter Michael Sowa, and an accompanying CD includes each aria, expertly recorded by Il Complesso Barocco. A fascinating, utterly original book, Handel’s Bestiary springs to life with Leon’s knowledge, passion, and wit.
Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; Har/Com edition (April 5, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802119964
ISBN-13: 978-0802119964
Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.8 x 7.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #836,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #53 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Handel #180 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Historical Period > Baroque #605 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Forms & Genres > Opera
Once upon a time, long before there were zoos and National Geographic, most people learned about animals of the wild through books called bestiaries. Often these books were more folklore than fact, created by authors and illustrators who'd never studied, or perhaps even set eyes on, the beasts they set out to portray.More recently, two American fans of the composer George Frideric Handel--Donna Leon, author of the enormously popular Commissario Brunetti detective novels, and Alan Curtis, director of the internationally acclaimed baroque music ensemble Il Complesso Barocco--discovered that they'd each long been intrigued by Handel's use of animal lore in his operas and oratorios. Which became the inspiration for their collaboration to create this beautiful little book with a CD tucked into it.Leon uses her deep knowledge of oral tradition, folklore and medieval bestiaries to create delightful little essays about the evolution of humankind's knowledge of each of the dozen animals Handel references in his arias: lion, snake, nightingale, bee, silver dove, tiger, frog, elephant, moth, stag, phoenix and turtle dove. Each essay is preceded by a bit of libretto in both English and Italian from the opera in which the animal appears and a whimsical color illustration by the German artist Michael Sowa. Inside the back cover is Curtis's contribution--a specially created CD of each of the Handel arias in which these animals are referenced, gorgeously performed by Il Complesso Barocco.If you love opera, this beautiful little book /CD combo is something I think you'll really enjoy.
This ought to sell well among all age-groups. The detective novelist Donna Leon has had the charming brainwave of extracting arias by her adored Handel from various of his operas and oratorios and constructing a modern pastiche bestiary around them. Handel himself lived from 1685 to 1759, zoos were not common (if indeed there were any) in the Europe of his day, but the public had an understandable fascination with fabled animals. Sometimes these were perfectly familiar up to a point - doves, frogs and bees obviously come in to this category - but were still surrounded by legends. Others were mainly known by rumour, such as lions tigers and elephants; and of course a few purely fabulous creatures still haunted the popular imagination, our example here being the phoenix.The main ingredient of a traditional bestiary is the illustrations, and Michael Sowa does brilliantly with these, tongue obviously in cheek. Donna Leon herself accompanies each of these with a short text summarising some stories about the creatures in question. These are not unsuitably scholarly or heavy, but they are very interesting, and at the start of each of these little essays there are the words (with English translation if the original was in Italian) of the aria in which the given animal bird or insect features on the cd attached to inside of the back cover. When Donna Leon produces supposed `derivations' of various names I like to think she is simply repeating what Pliny said. In the unlikely event that she believes them, please be careful not to believe them yourself.
Handel's Bestiary: In Search of Animals in Handel's Operas Word Search Book for Adults: Word Search Puzzles to Improve Memory and Exercise: word search, word search books, word search books for adults, adult word search books, word search puzzle books Word Search Puzzles Large Print: Large print word search, Word search books, Word search books for adults, Adult word search books, Word search puzzle books, Extra large print word search The Bel Canto Operas: A Guide to the Operas of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti Maria Stuarda: Tragedia lirica in Two Acts, Libretto by Giuseppe Bardari (The Critical Edition of the Operas of Gaetano Donizetti: Operas) Pia de' Tolomei: Tragedia lirica in Two Parts, libretto by Salvadore Cammarano (The Critical Edition of the Operas of Gaetano Donizetti: Operas) Warriors Word Scramble: Word Scramble Games - Word Search, Word Puzzles And Word Scrambles (Word Games, Brain Games, Word Search, Word Search Games, Word ... Scramble, Word Scrabble, Unscramble Word) The Best Large Print Word Search Puzzle Book: A Collection of 50 Themed Word Search Puzzles; Great for Adults and for Kids! (The Best Large Print Word Search Puzzle Books) (Volume 1) Fingerspelling Word Search Games - 36 Word Search Puzzles with the American Sign Language Alphabet: Volume 01 (Fingerspelling Word Search Games for Adults) Not Your Average Monster: A Bestiary of Horrors Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World Bestiary, Vol. 1 Numenera Ninth World Bestiary Creatures of the Wyld: A Bestiary of the Second Age (EXALTED Roleplaying, WW8803) Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 2 Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 1 Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 3 Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary (Pocket Edition) Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 5 Advanced Bestiary for the Pathfinder RPG Teddy Bears and Steiff Animals (Teddy Bears & Steiff Animals, Second Series)
