More Scott Operas: Further Analyses of Operas Based on the Works of Sir Walter Scott by Jerome Mitchell (review)

472 Comparative Drama provided of the subjects, plots, and sources of the plays in an account that is presented in logical sequence beginning with Genesis and ending with the Book of Revelation. Constraints of space do not allow room here for extended commentary on this section; nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that some of the more fascinating material has to do with the actual staging of the plays and the manner in which what is known today as "special effects" were created. The Bloody Sweat of Jesus' agony in the garden could be represented by two different means: "either Jesus can have a sponge of blood under his wig and press it at the right moment, or there can be someone hidden under the place where he is praying to paint the sweat on his face" (130). Also striking is the representation of Christ's ascension into heaven, sometimes involving steps, sometimes using "some kind of raising machinery or lift" (142); in Toledo, records from 1500 noted "a lift and a cloud that descended at the same time, covered with coloured paper and adorned with stars" (143). The book's conclusion is much like an epilogue in that, as in its introduction , Muir adopts a chronological perspective on the creation and performance of biblical drama; here, however, she begins her consideration in the sixteenth century and leads the reader up to the present day. Her discussion touches first on the conflict caused by the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation and their political manifestations as one of the major forces behind the decline of this type of theatrical activity, and closes with commentary on the reinstatement of biblical drama in the twentieth century. This volume is a valuable resource to those working in either Latin or the vernaculars, and provides a global European perspective that enables the reader to see across national boundaries and identify original features of biblical drama as it existed in Europe between the ninth and the sixteenth centuries. The material has been painstakingly researched and is organized in a clear and systematic manner. Muir's book will be a great help to other researchers working in medieval biblical drama, and most certainly it is an invitation for the further development of critical analyses of this important subject. MOLLY LYNDE-RECCHIA Western Michigan University Jerome Mitchell. More Scott Operas: FurtherAnalyses ofOperas Based on the Works of Sir Walter Scott. Lanham, Maryland, and New York: University Press of America, 1996. Pp. xx + 328. $44.00. Traditionally the culture of opera has differed radically in the English-speaking world from its European counterpart, the Europeans singing as a rule in the vernacular rather than in the language of the Reviews473 libretto. In the Anglo-American world the tradition calls for opera to be sung in the libretto's language. There are gains and losses from both approaches. When sung in the vernacular, the differing rhythms of languages often distort the musical phrasing. For example, listening to Verdi's // Trovatore in Czech transforms the musical line into a figured bass accompanying a kind of speech-singing. When sung in the libretto 's original language, meaning is almost inevitably lost despite assertions that the words are extraneous to the work's significance. The insistence on the "verbal" irrelevance engenders an aesthetic formalism with implications for musicology. This has unfortunately been the state of opera studies in the English-speaking world. Unlike its European analogues , Anglo-American musical scholarship has until recently ignored the libretto when discussing opera. Telecasts replete with "surtitles" have now transformed the opera performance. They offer audiences opera played most often by singing actors. Television is a mixed gift for opera. On one level it helps opera performance by emphasizing the drama and the narrative structure through its use of the "surtitles" to augment the traditional emphasis on the quality of singing. The loss comes from television's penchant for foregrounding the whole production and its inability to generate the excitement of a live performance. Television has contributed greatly to the growth in the size and sophistication of the opera audience. However , Anglo-American musical scholarship has yet to catch up with its European counterparts. European musicology has long...