{"title":"Series: Opera Lab: Explorations in History, Technology, and Performance","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOpera Lab: Explorations in History, Technology, and Performance\u003c\/strong\u003e invites readers to delve into a unique blend of scholarly insight and creative inquiry. This series offers thoughtful perspectives that bridge disciplines, exploring how historical context, technological innovation, and artistic performance intersect and influence one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom philosophical reflections and psychological studies to practical guides in business, finance, and technology, the collection encourages a deeper understanding of the forces shaping our world. Whether engaging with history, advancing health and wellness, or navigating global travel, readers find illuminating connections that enrich both mind and experience.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"lyric-personhood-by-dan-wang-9780226843575","title":"Lyric Personhood","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA new theory of personhood makes the case that a \"person\" has always been an aesthetic category, not just a legal, political, or moral one.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat does it mean to be a person? One might think of the possession of certain rights, having the capacity for love, or being self-determined. But if words like \"person\" or \"love\" seem to carry an internal meaning, where does this meaningfulness come from? \u003cem\u003eLyric Personhood\u003c\/em\u003e contends that to be encultured in the modern West is to learn, on top of everything else, an unspoken and mostly felt sense of what it means to be \u003cem\u003esomeone\u003c\/em\u003e, a sense transmitted not only in language but also through encounters with aesthetic form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough close readings that span nineteenth-century European opera, commercial cinema, and amateur YouTube proposal videos, Dan Wang shows that a \"person\" has become an aesthetic concept—and not just a legal, moral, political, or philosophical one—in the last two hundred years of Western culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt's hard to let go of the organizing promise of romantic love, the dream of therapeutic \"health,\" and the aspiration to belong to national culture, Wang argues, because these longings have been shaped by an archive of sentimental and melodramatic works that trains people's expectations for life, genre, and even the knowing promised in theory itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTracing a surprisingly continuous imagination of personhood through opera and film aesthetics, \u003cem\u003eLyric Personhood\u003c\/em\u003e introduces modes of reading audiovisual works that allow a longer story to be told about the forms that make personhood sensible in the West.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47031798137068,"sku":"9780226843575","price":120.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/58be5a4bbd6705cc901ad3d0f0ff0198.jpg?v=1764154273"},{"product_id":"opera-and-the-built-environment-by-laura-vasilyeva-9780226844466","title":"Opera and the Built Environment","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe first book to examine the classic Italian opera house in a global context.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eOpera and the Built Environment\u003c\/em\u003e, music scholar Laura Vasilyeva considers the remarkable mass construction of opera houses around the world since the 1800s and the no-less-remarkable bids to standardise the architectural features of their interiors across this vast theatrical infrastructure. Now known as the \u003cem\u003eteatro all'italiana\u003c\/em\u003e, this style of architecture—made most famous by Milan's Teatro alla Scala—is characterised by auditoria with tiers of stacked boxes and a dominant red hue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith attention to the sensuous dimensions of their auditoria, from their surfaces to the atmospheres to their acoustics and thresholds, Vasilyeva reveals the calculated reasons these theatres took on the form they did. The result is a book that reveals unknown associations between the Italian opera house and matters of environmental destruction, empire, and belonging, showing us new and unexpected patterns in how opera connects to the world we know.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47031804068076,"sku":"9780226844466","price":106.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/0054ce3cd1311197f7403c13a3c92b58.jpg?v=1764154223"},{"product_id":"singing-sappho-by-melina-esse-9780226741772","title":"Singing Sappho","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the theatrical stage to the literary salon, the figure of Sappho—the ancient poet and inspiring icon of feminine creativity—played a major role in the intertwining histories of improvisation, text, and performance throughout the nineteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExploring the connections between operatic and poetic improvisation in Italy and beyond, \u003ci\u003eSinging Sappho\u003c\/i\u003e combines earwitness accounts of famous female improviser-virtuosi with erudite analysis of musical and literary practices. Melina Esse demonstrates that performance played a much larger role in conceptions of musical authorship than previously recognised, arguing that discourses of spontaneity—specifically those surrounding the \u003ci\u003eimprovvisatrice\u003c\/i\u003e, or female poetic improviser—were paradoxically used to carve out a new authority for opera composers just as improvisation itself was falling into decline.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith this novel and nuanced book, Esse persuasively reclaims the agency of performers and their crucial role in constituting Italian opera as a genre in the nineteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47461362139372,"sku":"9780226741772","price":93.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780226741772-singing-sappho.jpg?v=1774966933"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/series-opera-lab-explorations-in-history-technology-and-performance.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}