Research Catalog

Title

Four last songs : aging and creativity in Verdi, Strauss, Messiaen, and Britten / Linda Hutcheon, Michael Hutcheon.

Author

Hutcheon, Linda, 1947-

Publication

• Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2015.
• ©2015

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Hutcheon, Michael, 1945-

Description

vii, 151 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

Aging and creativity can seem a particularly fraught relationship for artists, who often face age-related difficulties as their audience's expectations are at a peak. In Four Last Songs, Linda and Michael Hutcheon explore this issue via the late works of some of the world's greatest composers. Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), Richard Strauss (1864-1949), Olivier Messiaen (1908-92), and Benjamin Britten (1913-76) all wrote operas late in life, pieces that reveal unique responses to the challenges of growing older. Verdi's Falstaff, his only comedic success, combated Richard Wagner's influence by introducing young Italian composers to a new model of national music. Strauss, on the other hand, struggling with personal and political problems in Nazi Germany, composed the self-reflexive Capriccio, a life review of opera and his own legacy. Though it exhausted him physically and emotionally, Messiaen at the age of seventy-five finished his only opera, Saint François d'Assise, which marked the pinnacle of his career. Britten, meanwhile, suffering from heart problems, refused surgery until he had completed his masterpiece, Death in Venice. For all four composers, age, far from sapping their creative power, provided impetus for some of their best accomplishments. With its deft treatment of these composers' final years and works, Four Last Songs provides a valuable look at the challenges--and opportunities--that present themselves as artists grow older [Publisher description]

Uniform Title

University press scholarship online.

Subject

• Britten, Benjamin, 1913-1976 > Last years
• Messiaen, Olivier, 1908-1992 > Last years
• Strauss, Richard, 1864-1949 > Last years
• Verdi, Giuseppe, 1813-1901 > Last years
• Britten, Benjamin, 1913-1976
• Messiaen, Olivier, 1908-1992
• Strauss, Richard, 1864-1949
• Verdi, Giuseppe, 1813-1901
• Composers > Biography
• Aging > Psychological aspects
• Creative ability in old age
• Composers
• Creative ability in old age
• Last years of a person's life

Genre/Form

Biographies

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Setting the stage -- Creative responses to the challenges of aging -- Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) : a generational tale of cultural nationalism -- Richard Strauss (1864-1949) : a life review in music -- Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) : faith in God and art -- Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) : the life narratives of the ever-young "working composer" -- Conclusion : the particularities of aging and creativity.

ISBN

• 9780226255590 (cloth : alkaline paper)
• 022625559X (cloth : alkaline paper)
• 9780226255620 (e-book) (canceled/invalid)
• 022625562X (e-book) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

^^2014036323

OCLC

• 890360499
• SCSB-9902212

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library