Opera and the Built Environment
University of Chicago Press, 2025
Cloth: 978-0-226-84444-2 | Paper: 978-0-226-84446-6 | eISBN: 978-0-226-84445-9
Library of Congress Classification ML3849.V37 2025
Dewey Decimal Classification 780.072
Cloth: 978-0-226-84444-2 | Paper: 978-0-226-84446-6 | eISBN: 978-0-226-84445-9
Library of Congress Classification ML3849.V37 2025
Dewey Decimal Classification 780.072
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The first book to examine the classic Italian opera house in a global context.
In Opera and the Built Environment, 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 standardize the architectural features of their interiors across this vast theatrical infrastructure. Now known as the teatro all’italiana, this style of architecture—made most famous by Milan’s Teatro alla Scala—is characterized by auditoria with tiers of stacked boxes and a dominant red hue.
With 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 theaters 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.
In Opera and the Built Environment, 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 standardize the architectural features of their interiors across this vast theatrical infrastructure. Now known as the teatro all’italiana, this style of architecture—made most famous by Milan’s Teatro alla Scala—is characterized by auditoria with tiers of stacked boxes and a dominant red hue.
With 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 theaters 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.
See other books on: Built Environment | Modern (late 19th Century to 1945) | Music and architecture | Opera | Theaters
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