Excerpt: ...from actual life. Such persons are shocked that Tristan, for instance, should sing for half an hour when he is dying from physical weakness. Tolstoy sided with those who take this attitude, and he had no difficulty in showing up the absurd unreality of an operatic performance, if one insists upon applying to it the standard of our ordinary existence, since we do not burst into song ordinarily to express our every-day desires. Of course, there would be no great difficulty in showing up the absurd unreality of ...
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Excerpt: ...from actual life. Such persons are shocked that Tristan, for instance, should sing for half an hour when he is dying from physical weakness. Tolstoy sided with those who take this attitude, and he had no difficulty in showing up the absurd unreality of an operatic performance, if one insists upon applying to it the standard of our ordinary existence, since we do not burst into song ordinarily to express our every-day desires. Of course, there would be no great difficulty in showing up the absurd unreality of every other art, if the same standard is insisted upon. No art can justify itself for a moment unless we are willing to admit the essential conventions which alone permit it to exist. Tolstoy might as well have pointed out that sculpture is ridiculous, since no human being is ever all of one color, body and clothes, as a statue must be, whether it is made of marble or of bronze. He could have declared that painting is equally untrue to the mere facts of life, since it represents nature absolutely without motion, as when it depicts a field of waving corn which does not really wave but stands fixed forever. If Tolstoy or any one else refuses to accept the conventions of any art, there is no possible reply, except to make it clear to him that he is thereby depriving himself of the delight which that art can give. A departure from the mere fact underlies every art; and it is only because of that departure that the art exists. By convention, that is to say, by tacit agreement between the artist and the public, the artist is allowed to deny certain of the facts of life in order to provide the public with the specific pleasure which only his art can afford. In the Shaksperian drama the underlying convention is that the persons of the play belong to a race of people who always express themselves poetically in English blank verse. In opera this necessary agreement requires us to concede the existence of men and women to whom song is the natural means of...
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Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $10.00, good condition, Sold by James Cummings Bookseller rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Signal Mountain, TN, UNITED STATES, published 1916 by Scribners.
Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $10.74, good condition, Sold by Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Phoenix, AZ, UNITED STATES.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Hardcover. Ex-library. Edgewear. Library markings. Deckled. Text clean; no writing or marks. Thirty-two illustrations, Full-color and B&W. Printed 1916, Columbia Universitiy.
Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $12.03, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2021 by Alpha Edition.
Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $18.51, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2015 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $20.00, very good condition, Sold by Between the Covers-Rare Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester City, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons.
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Very Good. First edition. Very good. Hardcover is rubbed and frayed at spine ends and corners, cover and foredges soiled, spine faded, gold stamping on front cover and spine.
Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $22.00, very good condition, Sold by Second Life Books Inc. rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lanesborough, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1916 by Scribner.
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8vo, 334 pages. Illustrated. TEG. VG copy. A thorough treatment of the theatre in all its phases. Full chapter on the Toy Theatre, Miller and His Men, includes 5 delightful illustrations, two in full color.
Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $22.29, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2021 by Legare Street Press.
Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $25.79, new condition, Sold by Paperbackshop rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensenville, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Hardpress Publishing.
Add this copy of A Book About the Theater to cart. $31.73, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2023 by Legare Street Press.
