Review: Opera for the People: English-Language Opera and Women Managers in Late 19th-Century America, by Katherine K. Preston

Abstract

Book Review| August 01 2019 Review: Opera for the People: English-Language Opera and Women Managers in Late 19th-Century America, by Katherine K. Preston Opera for the People: English-Language Opera and Women Managers in Late 19th-Century America, by Katherine K. Preston. AMS Studies in Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. xxix, 618 pp. Candace Bailey Candace Bailey CANDACE BAILEY is Professor of Musicology at North Carolina Central University. Her current research focuses on women and music in the United States during the nineteenth century. Her most recent book is Charleston Belles Abroad (University of South Carolina Press, 2019). She will be a National Humanities Center Fellow and Kate Van Winkle Keller Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society in 2019–20. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (2019) 72 (2): 581–585. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2019.72.2.581 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Candace Bailey; Review: Opera for the People: English-Language Opera and Women Managers in Late 19th-Century America, by Katherine K. Preston. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 August 2019; 72 (2): 581–585. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2019.72.2.581 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search Nineteenth-century music has never faded as a foundational subject of inquiry among musicologists nor has its popularity waned in the concert hall or college classroom. Since at least the 1980s, however, musicologists have begun to question the prominence given to the repertoire presented in these spaces and, more broadly, the influence of the canon on modern perceptions of music of the past. Critical interrogation of musicology and its historiography has yielded an expanding list of composers, provided a more balanced view of compositional practices, and opened the door to reconsiderations of performance, circulation, and reception. This type of research provides a more holistic approach to Western music and allows for new examinations of old concepts and innovative interpretations of familiar repertoires. Music in the United States presents special challenges to traditional methodologies. Its historiography is too young to have many old concepts, and its repertoire hardly familiar. Tensions that may... You do not currently have access to this content.