Review: Reconfiguring Myth and Narrative in Contemporary Opera: Osvaldo Golijov, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, and Tan Dun, by Yayoi Uno Everett

Abstract

Book Review| April 01 2018 Review: Reconfiguring Myth and Narrative in Contemporary Opera: Osvaldo Golijov, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, and Tan Dun, by Yayoi Uno Everett Reconfiguring Myth and Narrative in Contemporary Opera: Osvaldo Golijov, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, and Tan Dun, by Yayoi Uno Everett. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015. xviii, 241 pp. Rebecca Leydon Rebecca Leydon REBECCA LEYDON is Professor of Music Theory at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Her work on the semiotics of musical timbre, musical form, popular music, and film scores has appeared in journals including Music Theory Online, Music Theory Spectrum, Perspectives of New Music, and Popular Music and in numerous collections of essays. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (2018) 71 (1): 272–277. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2018.71.1.272 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Rebecca Leydon; Review: Reconfiguring Myth and Narrative in Contemporary Opera: Osvaldo Golijov, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, and Tan Dun, by Yayoi Uno Everett. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 April 2018; 71 (1): 272–277. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2018.71.1.272 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search Yayoi Uno Everett opens her study of twenty-first-century opera with a focus on its rejection of conventional linear narrative structures and its integration of increasingly sophisticated audiovisual technologies. The changes in production have their analogues in habits of consumption, as opera fans can now enjoy HD broadcasts in movie theaters and on television, and can experience operas as multi-camera-POV spectacles or as staged in naturalistic environments. For Everett, the changes to the genre demand a new set of tools for analysis—tools capable of recognizing opera's intrinsic intermedial qualities and its new modes of reception. She draws specific attention to the tension between technologically mediated, state-of-the-art productions of works and their exploration of timeless mythical themes. The book examines the reconfiguration of mythological archetypes in four recent operas, each of which addresses the subject of war and its effects. Individual chapters on the four operas examine their compositional genesis and the... You do not currently have access to this content.