Evenings with the Orchestra

During The Performances Of Fashionable Operas In An Unidentified But Civilized Town In Northern Europe, The Musicians (with The Exception Of The Conscientious Bass Drummer) Tell Tales, Read Stories, And Exchange Gossip To Relieve The Tedium Of The Bad Music They Are Paid To Perform. In This Delightful And Now Classic Narrative Written By The Brilliant Composer And Critic Hector Berlioz, We Are Privy To Twenty-five Highly Entertaining Evenings With A Fascinating Group Of Distracted Performers. This Edition Of The Author's Translation Of This Work Contains A New Foreword By Berlioz Scholar Peter Bloom. Foreword / Peter Bloom -- Preface To The Phoenix Edition / Jacques Barzun -- Introduction / Jacques Barzun -- Prologue -- First Evening -- The First Opera -- Vincenza -- The Vexations Of Kleiner The Elder -- Second Evening -- The Strolling Harpist -- The Performance Of An Oratorio -- The Sleep Of The Just -- Third Evening [der Freischultz] -- Fourth Evening -- A Debut In Freischutz -- Marescot -- Fifth Evening -- The S In Robert Le Diable -- Sixth Evening -- How A Tenor Revolves Around The Public -- The Vexations Of Kleiner The Younger -- Seventh Evening -- Historical And Philosophical Studies: De Viris Illustribus Urbis Romae -- A Roman Woman -- Vocabulary Of The Roman Language -- Eighth Evening -- Romans Of The New World -- Mr. Barnum -- Jenny Lind's Trip To America -- Ninth Evening -- The Paris Opera And London's Opera Houses -- Tenth Evening -- On The Present State Of Music -- The Tradition Of Tack -- A Victim Of Tack -- Eleventh Evening [a Masterpiece] -- Twelfth Evening --^ Suicide From Enthusiasm -- Thirteenth Evening -- Spontini, A Biographical Sketch -- Fourteenth Evening -- Operas Off The Assembly Line -- The Problem Of Beauty -- Schiller's Mary Stuart -- A Visit To Tom Thumb -- Fifteenth Evening -- Another Vexation Of Kleiner The Elder's -- Sixteenth Evening -- Musical And Phrenological Studies -- Nightmares -- The Puritans Of Sacred Music -- Paganini -- Seventeenth Evening [the Barber Of Seville] -- Eighteenth Evening -- Charles Leveled Against The Author's Criticism -- Analysis Of The Lighthouse -- The Piano Possessed -- Nineteenth Evening [don Giovanni] -- Twentieth Evening -- Historical Gleanings: Napoleon's Odd Susceptibility -- His Musical Judgment -- Napoleon And Lesueur -- Napoleon And The Republic Of San Marino -- Twenty-first Evening -- The Study Of Music -- Twenty-second Evening [iphigenia In Tauris] -- Twenty-third Evening -- Gluck And The Conservatory In Naples -- A Saying Of Durante's -- Twenty-fourth Evening [les Huguenots] --^ Twenty-fifth Evening -- Euphonia, Or The Musical City -- Epilogue -- The Farewell Dinner -- Second Epilogue -- Corsino's Letter To The Author -- The Author's Reply To Corsino Hector Berlioz ; Translated And Edited With An Introduction And Notes By Jacques Barzun; With A New Foreword By Peter Bloom. Originally Published: Chicago : University Of Chicago Press, 1973. Includes Index.