Covent Garden : the untold story : dispatches from the English culture war, 1945-2000 /
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| Author / Creator: | Lebrecht, Norman, 1948- |
|---|---|
| Imprint: | Boston : Northeastern University Press, 2001. |
| Description: | 580 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | |
| Format: | Print Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4546702 |
Table of Contents:
- 1. Come into the Garden, Awed The place of the Royal Opera House on the map of England
- 2. Drinks at the Bar, 6.45 (1945 European time) England at war's end: how Maynard Keynes put culture ahead of our daily bread
- 3. Enter the Leader (1946-47) A shopkeeper as chief executive, a bomb-shelter for chairman and a dynamo in charge of the ballet
- 4. Overture and Beginners (1947-51) Tuning up with crabby Rankl, blooming Fonteyn and the dangerously young Peter Brook
- 5. First Act, Forbidden Acts (1951-59) The gay traumas of David Webster and Benjamin Britten; the blinding aura of Maria Callas
- 6. Short Interval: Champagne, Canapes and Nature Calls (1959-60) Earls in ermine, coups in Panama and a blood-stained frock
- 7. Act Two, Enter the Jew (1961-70) Georg Solti and Arnold Goodman awaken English racism and a Tatar adds sauce to the ballet
- 8. The Long Interval: Propping Up the Crush Bar (1971-87) 'The management of decline' as practised in the Cabinet Office and Covent Garden
- 9. Act Three, On a Spree (1987-96) Jeremy Isaacs presides as television turns Covent Garden into soap opera and closure looms
- 10. Act Four, Where's the Door? (January to August 1997) The brief, enigmatic reign of Genista McIntosh
- 11. Coming Up for Eyre (September 1997 to November 1998) An official investigation, a parliamentary tribunal, and two more chief executives come and go
- 12. And So to Bed (December 1998 to December 1999) Michael Kaiser settles the panic and reopens the house
- 13. Lie Back and Think of England (2000, or 2100 European Time) What the future holds--for opera in a soundbite society, for Englishness in a multicultural universe, for the stubborn urge to create art against overwhelming odds
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
