Download or read book The Lyrical Drama, Vol. 2 written by Henry Sutherland Edwards and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-12-02 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Lyrical Drama, Vol. 2: Essays on Subjects, Composers,& Executants of Modern Opera The subject of Azda, which is tragic in the extreme, and which but for the bright and often splendid musical sur roundings given to it by Signor Verdi would be gloomy, is said to have been suggested by the Khedive himself. To the musician who first made his mark by an opera on the subject of Nebuchadnezzar, a, drama of which the scene is laid at Memphis and at Thebes, of which the action takes place in the time of the Pharaohs, and which numbers among its chief personages a triumphant King of Egypt, a captive King of Ethiopia, with an indefinite number of mysterious priests and priestesses, gorgeously attired soldiers and many coloured slaves, could scarcely fail to prove attractive and the composer of the so-called Nabuco seems to have revelled in the pageant music, dance music, religious choruses and mili tary hymns which together make up a very consider able portion of his Egyptian work. Aida is as full of show and glitter as l'africaine, and some of the themes presented in the characteristically Egyptian scenes are alleged to be of Egyptian origin. Indeed, one would not be surprised to hear that the really curious subject of the chorus in praise of the immense Phtah had, like the subject of the libretto, been furnished by the Khe dive himself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.