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The article focuses on the exploration of modern adaptations of classical myths in musical theater, particularly comparing two works: "The Frogs" and "Hadestown." Topics include the evolution of these adaptations to reflect contemporary political and social themes, the use of mythology as a lens for understanding present-day concerns, and the enduring relevance of classical myths in inspiring artistic interpretations across different eras.

Hutcheon (2006) considers adaptations not just a way of showing or telling stories but a mode of interaction as well. Adaptations offer something different and new and hence, their success does not depend solely on retaining fidelity to the original. The current study intends to show how the musical movie, Into the Woods offers this 'something' new by showing the transformation of its female characters as compared to other Disney versions. The data consists of the musical adaptation Into the Woods and since the movie is a combination of different fairy tales, the original story and different versions of those fairy tales are taken into consideration for analysis. Adaptation theory serves as a theoretical framework for the study whereas Campbell's (1949) Rites of Passage provides methodology to the studies. The data has been analyzed through three components of the Rites of Passage i.e. separation or departure, trials and victories of initiation and return and integration with society. The findings reveal how female characters in the movie transform themselves in the course of the film: from dependent to independent, submissive to domineering and from indecisive beings to bold and strong females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to articles in the issue is presented on topics including the anthology "Currently & Emotion: Translations" edited by Sophie Collins, Don Mee Choi's translations of Kim Hyesoon, and Jeff Hilson's exploration of musical adaptation as a form of translation.

A paradoxical feature of the lament as a poetical and musical genre is the imbalance between the supposedly spontaneous expression of emotional turmoil and the artificial dimension of its artistic representation. Embedded in the lament since antiquity, such tension becomes particularly prominent in the early modern period, when the development of the 'lamenting mode' in poetry and vocal music facilitated experimentation in both domains. After reconsidering the rhetorical status of the lament, this essay explores the ways in which one specific lament – Olimpia's from Ariosto's Orlando furioso – moves across mediums and genres. More precisely, by focusing on the transition from ottava rima to the free-verse recitative style of seventeenth-century lamenti and cantatas, the article argues that the formal instability intrinsic to the lament exposes the limitations of any attempt to represent the utterance of a lamenting character as well as the expressive potential conveyed by its quintessentially performative nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cahiers Elisabethains: A Biannual Journal of English Renaissance Studies is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on 1923 edition of "Harmonium" which present a specific subset of musical adaptations. It mentions collection by Wallace Stevens that also contains the largest share of most popular poems and diverse range of musical adaptations the poet has been inspiring. It also mentions extra compositional dimension to the musical possibilities afforded nowadays by online digital technologies.

The story of Romeo and Juliet has been reinvented in a number of musical adaptations. One of the boldest and most sophisticated attempts is Giulietta e Romeo (2007), a two-act Italian production with the music of the French-Italian singer and composer Riccardo Cocciante and with a libretto by the poet Pasquale Panella. As Cristina Paravano argues in this article, the work offers a unique opportunity to rethink Shakespeare and Italy from a suggestive contemporary Italian perspective. What distinguished this production from other musical adaptations was its strong intertextuality on a musical and textual level. By embracing forms of re-creation and re -vision, it created a profoundly and intrinsically Italian version of the story, drawing on and combining Italian musical, literary, and cultural traditions. The result was a combination of Cocciante's pop-rock background, contemporary pop-electronic music, operatic conventions and techniques, and Italian musical tradition, all filtered through the memory of Nino Rota's tunes written for Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. On the other hand, Panella's libretto taps into Shakespeare's Italian sources: while keeping to the Shakespearean plot line, the author adds interpolations from Luigi da Porto's Istoria novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti (1530) and Matteo Bandello's novella (1554, 2: IX). The present paper evaluates how this innovative rendition enacts a further exchange between England and Italy so that metaphorically Italy ‘reappropriates'’ its own story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Études Stéphane Mallarmé is the property of Classiques Garnier and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Kwartalnik Mlodych Muzykologów UJ is the property of Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego, Kolo Naukowe Studentow Muzykologii and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay examines how Kneehigh's--exuberantly theatrical--musical adaptation of the Tristan legend shifts the focus from the lovers to the 'unloved,' the members of their entourage (especially their spouses) who experience the fall-out from this great passion. A literary analysis of the play is followed b a discussion of Kneehigh's enthusiastic embrace of 'devised' (performance-based) theater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines the relationship between Othello and music, from the play text to opera, popular music allusions, and diegetic and non-diegetic soundtracks, analysing its adaptability/inadaptability in various contexts, with a focus on the issue of race. It does this through the lenses of adaptation studies and the singular history that adaptations of Shakespeare's work have. The central question addressed is: what do musical adaptations reveal about the adaptability of the play? What this article aims to achieve - and that which has not been undertaken previously - is to expand the lines of analysis from G. Wilson Knight's conception of the 'The Othello music' to sustained consideration of musical adaptations across periods and media, combining a discussion of the Moor's 'musicality' with re-representations of race, deducing whether or not it sits as uneasily in musical forms as it does in screen adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a musical critique of the Chichester Psalms composed by Leonard Bernstein, a setting of Psalm 100 and one verse from Psalm 108 from the Bible for chorus and orchestra. Topics include the emotional impact of meter changes and varied tonal intervals in the opening of the piece and challenges the work poses for singers.

The article explores American singer-songwriter and pop-culture feminist icon Tori Amos and playwright Samuel Adamson's musical adaptation of Scottish fairy tale "The Light Princess" by George MacDonald. Topics include Amos' intention to make MacDonald's work as a timely tale for the 21st century, the continuing and growing popularity of the Victorian writer, and Amos and Adamson's tendency to misunderstand fairytale conventions.

An interview with lyricist Jeffrey Haddow and composer Thomas Tierney who teamed up to adapt the children's book "At the Back of the North Wind" by George MacDonald as a musical. Topics include their respective impressions of the children's book which they saw an opportunity to adapt as an animated film, the target audience of their adaptation, and why the song titled "Intuition" becomes a major theme in the musical.

The article explores the literary contributions of poet and essayist William Ayrton in building the relationship between music and his literary works. A brief information about Ayrton personal background, educational attainment and career development as poet and essayists is noted. It also outlines Ayrton artistic directing on operas, assigned plays and conducted chorus.

An essay is presented that discusses the role of musical settings of an author's work in literary bibliography in light of poet Christina Georgina Rossetti's appearances in musical settings. Other topics include reference works that contain musical settings, databases of musical settings, and bibliographical methodology for the inclusion of musical settings.

An essay is presented which compares the musical adaptation and Sherley Anne Williams' original novel of "Dessa Rose." It provides a summary of the story and discusses the musical's focus on slavery to promote historical redress via a black culture consumption. It also looks into the dynamics of power affected by gender and race, the use of the first-person narrative in the play, and its limited parlay of information.

In this article I shall focus on the novel Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, briefly refer to a graphic novel by De Metter, and Scorsese’s film by the same name, as well as the compiled musical soundtrack for the film. I will discuss general methodological and theoretical questions raised by these works, but the entire discussion is directed towards Scorsese’s film (including its soundtrack) as well as the music of film generally: why did Scorsese and his team choose such a relatively special soundtrack for the film; what is the role of music in the general adaptation process of turning a novel into film; and what is the relation between the musical soundtrack and the originating novel? Madness, I will argue, will be part of both the problem and the answer to the methodological and theoretical investigations, and I will argue that we ought to consider music as an important aspect in Scorsese’s Shutter Island, and that my specific discussion will have repercussions beyond the study of this particular novel and film. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the use of poems contained in the poetry collection "Schimpf- und Ernsthaffte Clio" by Baroque-era poet Ernst Christoph Homburg as librettos for songs contained in the "Weltliche Oden oder Liebesgesänge" cycle composed by organist Andreas Hammerschmidt. The author focuses on questions of literary influence, adaptation, and intertextuality. He also provides biographical information on both Homburg and Hammerschmidt, the reception of both the poems and the songs in 17th- and 18th-century Germany, and research on the exact year of Hammerschmidt's birth.

As a contribution to music and literature, this paper explores ways in which the verbal music of Thomas Mann's novel Doktor Faustus--the narrator's descriptions of the hero's compositions-- has been implied or realized musically by the composers Humphrey Searle, Rolf Wilhelm, Benjamin Britten, Konrad Boehmer, Hans Werner Henze, and Hermann Kretzschmar in a British radio play, a German film and Horspiel, and several independent compositions. The discussion concludes with a fictional analogy: a novel by MacDonald Harris in which a composer completes an imaginary tenth symphony by Leverkühn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary research questions the assumption that humanistic ode settings were solely used in the context of Latin schools for the rehearsal of ancient meters. Birgit Lodes has recently shown that Celtis' Melopoiae are rather not intended for academic purposes, but for representation. The form and layout of the elaborately decorated book reflect, in the first place, the tradition of humanistic textual prints, not that of musical or pedagogical publications. Heinrich Glarean's remarks on the Humanistenode in the Dodecachordon have as yet received only marginal attention within this discussion. However, Glarean's passionate defence of monophonic singing indicates that he holds an idiosyncratic position, a position which also does not confine the function of humanistic odes to academic contexts. In this article, I wish to elucidate Glarean's position in the discussion on the way of singing humanistic ode settings: Which tradition does he follow? From what does he distance himself? And what exactly is the nature of the innovation, brought about by him? The article explores these questions by means of melodic analysis of Glarean's monophonic ode settings, in relation to his other writings and through comparison with polyphonic ode compositions and their contents, taking into account the latest research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary critique is presented of the opera "Rigoletto" by composer Giuseppe Verdi, and Verdi's use of themes from the play "King Lear" by William Shakespeare. The author uses the psychological theory of transference to argue that Verdi uses the structure of "King Lear" for his opera, including themes of the abuse of power, the relationship between fathers and daughters, and the character of the fool.

The author discusses three problems he encountered when he attempted a musical setting of the book "The Leper's Helix" by Robert Coover. He said he had doubts on whether three pages of text could be adapted in a piece of 20 minutes or so. The author said he had to search for a musical equivalent for the geometric structure at the core of the text. He adapted an old semi-improvisational piano piece for the leper's music to be placed between areas of sung text.

In composing La Bohéme, based on the novel Scénes de la vie Bohéme/Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henry Murger, Giacomo Puccini used musical themes symbolic of characters, emotions and settings. Jonathan Larson also based Rent on Murger's novel, and the characters, plot and themes of both the opera and musical are close to identical. Larson signposted a clear motivic connection to La Bohéme within Rent and this led to the development of my hypotheses: that Larson transposed a number of Puccini's themes into Rent; that he was aware of their symbolism; that the 'Musetta's Waltz' transposition was the most important transposition from La Bohéme to Rent; and that the transpositions applied to the 'Musetta's Waltz' theme throughout Rent were the most dramatically significant. This study compares the scores and musical themes of both works in an attempt to establish Larson's intention behind the transpositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her article, '"Defying Gravity": Queer conventions in the musical Wicked', Stacy Wolf suggests that, although conforming to many of the conventional modes of the musical genre, the musical Wicked queers the stage by refocusing on the queer relationship between Glinda and Elphaba. Although such queering occurs to some extent, the production aims to marginalize and then reformulate the relationship as a friendship rather than a queer romance. By forcing Elphaba from the role of tom-boy to sexy witch and by reorganizing the Glinda/Elphaba/Fiyero love triangle, the musical mutes the more aggressively contentious elements of the novel in order to create a performance with an appealing heroine and a storyline that features female friendship as well as the standard romantic plotline. I further assert that when the narrative of the Wicked Witch of the West moves to the larger-than-life venue of Broadway, the complexities of the novel necessarily fade as the creators reformat the material in order to appeal to a broader audience. This Elphaba can be neither the Witch in Maguire's novel nor a replication of the Witch from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. As the heroine of the narrative, one who must somehow garner the sympathy of the audience, Elphaba can be neither a hideous manifestation of evil or the complex ungendered being of the novel. Consequently, although the heroines, Glinda and Elphaba, represent an innovation on Broadway, the intervention that the musical provides is not queer in nature. Instead, what the musical offers is a focus on female friendship, a trope little seen on the musical stage, while still appealing to the base audience by refocusing the sexual tension on Fiyero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garry Lyons is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, producer and academic. He is currently Lecturer in Writing for Performance & Performance Production within the School of Performance & Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, and Programme Leader for the School's M.A. in Writing for Performance & Publication. He began his career in the 1980s with Major Road Theatre Company and as Director of the Theatre in the Mill, Bradford before turning freelance. His theatre writing includes Frankie and Tommy (Lyric, Hammersmith, 2000), Wicked, Yaar! (National Theatre, 1994) and Mohicans (Donmar Warehouse, 1984), and among his screen credits are the Royal Television Society award-winning Decisions (Channel 4, 2004), Britain's First Suicide Bombers (BBC 2, 2006) and four seasons of the Bafta-nominated children's series The Worst Witch (ITV, 1998-2001), which has been broadcast in more than 60 countries worldwide. His adaptation of The Secret Garden played to sold-out houses over the festive season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (2009-2010) and Birmingham Repertory Theatre (2010-2011). The Independent described the new musical as having 'a filmic quality' and added 'this Secret Garden doesn't shout its secrets at the audience. Instead, it creates some lovely musical intimacies which enhance the magical sense of human fragility and reality on stage'. Here, Lyons talks to George Rodosthenous (Lecturer in Music Theatre, University of Leeds) about his collaboration with the composer Tim Sutton and the director Ian Brown, writing the book for a musical specifically 'for a regional English audience' and how 'the lack of encouragement and investment in new musicals in this country is woeful'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the opera libretto "Moby-Dick," by Gene Scheer, adapted from the novel by Herman Melville, is presented. According to the author, the opera contrasts Western Christianity with other forms of spirituality. Particular focus is given to the religious journey of Greenhorn, an original character who replaces Melville's character Ishmael. The opera's portrayals of the characters Queequeg, Pip, Starbuck, and Ahab are also discussed, as is the music by composer Jake Heggie.

An interview with composer Jake Heggie is presented. He discusses his collaboration with librettist Gene Scheer in composing the opera "Moby-Dick". When asked about previous film adaptations of the novel, he says they were unsatisfactory because they interpreted the original text too literally. He comments on the relationships between the characters Ahab, Starbuck, Greenhorn and Queequeg and their importance in the opera.

This article brings into focus an aspect of Artaud's seminal influence on experimental music which, although ranging from David Tudor to Japanese noise artists, has yet to be fully explored in comparison with available literature on Artaud and theatre. Sprich zu mir in Seuchensprache contributes to this discussion by arguing that the Berlin-based music collective Einstürzende Neubauten are one of the most effective working examples of Artaudian artists. The evidence given is in the musicians' philosophy of music as apocalypse and utopia; in their risk-filled (but disciplined) physicality with their industrial playgrounds and their work with dance troupes; their investigation into, and use of, found sound and unusually constructed instrumentation; their expanded gestural vocalization and their use of the scream. Neubauten's lyrics also support Artaudian concerns in their avoidance of personal shopping and shagging for cosmic, scientific, biological and mythical themes and in the structuring from dreams, lists and chance games. Finally Neubauten pursue the desire to create an artist-recipient shared transforming 'cruelty' that reaches beyond the ears and eyes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mark Morris's L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato (1988), embodies ideas about how to live a good life. L'Allegro is unusual in that it is a full evening-length work, yet has no through-narrative; it has characters and action, but these change in each of the many individual sections. However, together these embody a dialogue - really a three (or four or even five)-way discussion between poet, composer and choreographer about the best way to live. The relationship between dance, music and text, and the implied conversation across the centuries between Milton, Handel, Jennens and Morris, offer insights into the way such layering of creativity can illuminate our engagement with art. As in so much of Mark Morris's work, the relationship of choreography and music is of paramount importance, and this will form the main focus of the discussion here. Handel's secular oratorio of 1740 is itself a setting of John Milton's companion poems, L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (1631), which explicitly explore through debate the relative merits of different approaches to life. Handel's musical setting includes an additional 'voice' in the debate: Il Moderato, words by Handel's librettist Charles Jennens, offering a 'middle way', or '18 th century balance', as John Eliot Gardiner has it (1980:16).1 For the purposes of this essay I focus chiefly on the dialogue between dance and music as manifest in a few 'moments', with reference also at times to the poetry and its rhythms. In this, I am guided by theories of art as embodiment as expounded by Paul Crowther. When we engage with art, we do so in the fullest sense of perceptual, that is, with our whole, embodied selves. Art, as the embodiment of ideas, does not teach us anything specific about the artist or his/her world, but it does reveal something of the world-view of the artist as an embodied being. There is thus the potential for empathy, and imaginative engagement; we are not passive consumers but active reciprocal participants. Through close reading of a few short examples drawn from the work, I employ structural analysis to examine music-dance relationships, referring also from time to time to the poetry, which itself reflects key characteristics of both choreography and music. These examples show how dance, music and poetry manifest characteristics that are suggestive of similar perspectives on life, both individually and in relationship with one another. John Creaser, writing of Milton's poems, observes that they embody [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the 1926 novel "Blondes Have More Fun" by Anita Loos, focusing particularly on its various adaptations including as a magazine serial, stage play, silent film, musical, and motion picture. An overview of the story's plot is presented. The author considers how the novel presents a convergence of literature and film. Other subjects considered include popular culture, modernism, and contemporary criticisms of the novel by authors including H. L. Mencken, Edith Wharton, and Aldous Huxley.

The article presents information about the work of Swiss composer Walter Feldmann. Particular emphasis is placed on his reliance on literature in the composition process. Descriptions are given of the compositional techniques employed by Feldmann, including counterpoint, serialism, and the creation of a system of micro-rhythms and notation.

The article presents a criticism of the piece "Der Spaziergang" by composer Michel Roth, based on a text by writer Robert Walser. Descriptions are given of the instrumentation for the piece, the musical representation of various episodes from Walser's narrative, and the use of doubling and echoes in the piece. Excerpts from the musical score for the piece are also included.

The addresses the six songs by Austrian composer Franz Schubert set to texts by German poet Heinrich Heine that appear within the second part of Schwanengesang, the collection of essays edited by Martin Chusid. It reexamines the songs by combining literary and musical analysis, along with the elements of Freudian psychoanalysis, in an effort to deepen understanding of Schubert's last songs. The article seeks to present an interpretation of the music itself and not to psychoanalyze either Schubert or Heine.

The article offers musico-poetic analysis of swan songs by Franz Schubert through his chosen poem by Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg in an effort to expose some of the kaleidoscopic character of its expression. It exposes the cyclical nature of the song, which simulates processes of transformation and transcendence, the essential bonds and mutual dependency that integrate the melody and its accompaniment, and the residence of meaning in relations among the tones that constitute its musical structure and create its effects.

The article examines two lyric poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, each set to the music of Austrian composer Franz Schubert, to illustrate the conflict between poetic and instrumental/vocal musics, in which some of the original, essential music and meaning of a poem is apt be lost when adapted to a tonal setting. It illustrates ways in which Schubert's settings alters the rhythm, accentuation and nuances of Goethe's texts, thus subtly changing their meaning and hints.

Rudolf Bruèi (1917-2002), similarly to Josip ©tolcer Slavenski (1896-1955) and Petar Bergamo (1930), is one among those composers who Ñ owing to specific political realities and depending on various contexts Ñ could be treated as being part of Croatian, Serbian or, probably, even Yugoslav music histories. In spite of his appearance at the Zagreb Music Biennale and Opatija Tribune festivals, his opus has been inexplicably neglected by both Croatian and Serbian musicologists. Although he was given more attention in Serbia, neither of the two musicologies has tried to investigate his compositional profile. Rudolf Bruèi never belonged to the ÔmainstreamÕ, and he could never be characterised as a traditional or conservative composer. In fact, it seems that the ideologies of dominating aesthetics of his time have had a presentiment of the unusual hybridity of his opus and, consequently, omitted him. This article tries to deconstruct the apparent parable which accompanies his compositional line, so typical for many compositional profiles of the 20th century: from inherited traditional concepts via withdrawing or rejecting and negation of the heritage to various manifestations of the so-called returnings. The article further investigates the existence of a composer in the so-called Ôposition in-betweenÕ, imposed by various aesthetics as specific ideologies. This research presents the first and only systematic work on BruèiÕs opus. Based on analysis, it also offers an attempt to situate Bruèi in the context of Croatian music and history. In addition, BruèiÕs opus shows itself to be ideal for the investigation of those compositional positions in which it is possible to understand the adaptation of the New Music (the avant-garde) techniques to a traditional musical thinking, firstly in form and secondly in some compositional processes that produce it. The possible defining of BruèiÕs compositional aesthetics as an Ôadapted avant-gardeÕ provokes a re-definition of notions such as tradition and traditionalism, restauration, Neo-Classicism, New Music, avant-garde, conservativism, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]