Classical Opera category: 1804 books

In a famous Parisian chess café, a down-and-out, HIM, accosts a former acquaintance, ME, who has made good, more or less. They talk about chess, about genius, about good and evil, about music, they gossip about the society in which they move, one of extreme inequality, of corruption, of envy, and...

OperaUpClose’s electric new English translation of La Bohème charts the ups and downs of a group of idealistic graduates as they bicker, party, try to make ends meet and follow their dreams. Having wowed audiences at The Cock Tavern Theatre in Kilburn in a record-breaking, sell-out six-month run,...

Richard Strauss' fifteen operas, which span the years 1893 to 1941, make up the largest German operatic legacy since Wagner's operas of the nineteenth century. Many of Strauss's works were based on texts by Europe's finest writers: Oscar Wilde, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Stefan Zweig, among others,...

A photographic journey by Minoas about Maria Callas life in Athens neighborhoods."There are times where just simple hits lead you to do something that you’ve never imagined before. So as I had never thought I would do or say something about the greatest opera singer of all time. That said, perhaps...

New in Paperback! This book supplies a soprano with nearly everything she may need to perform the operatic arias discussed. The 28 arias included are chosen from among those that are more popular and most widely studied and performed. There are descriptions of stage settings, with costume sketches...

The full english text for the opera La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini. A romantic tragedy about the love between a poet, Rodolfo, and a seamstress, Mimì.

‘The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie’ was written by the German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883). The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas, and are here translated into English by Margaret Armour. The chief components include ‘The Rhinegold’ – the prelude, ‘The Valkyrie’...

A superb new translation of one of the greatest nineteenth century poems: the libretto to Wagner's Ring cycle The scale and grandeur of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung has no precedent and no successor. It preoccupied Wagner for much of his adult life and revolutionized the nature of opera,...

For most of my life I’ve wanted to be a top rate tenor. As a young man it was my dream to be singing in the great opera houses of the world. I always believed it was my destiny and that I had it in me to achieve my dream. But obviously my dream didn’t eventuate. However, I still believe it would...

David Beard presents the first definitive survey of Harrison Birtwistle's music for the opera house and theatre, from his smaller-scale works, such as Down by the Greenwood Side and Bow Down, to the full-length operas, such as Punch and Judy, The Mask of Orpheus and Gawain. Blending source study with...

The stage works of Saint-Saëns range from grand open-air pageants to one-act comic operas, and include the first composed film score. Yet, with the exception of Samson et Dalila, his twelve operas have lain in the shadows since the composer's death in 1921. Widely performed in his lifetime, they...

Of all the great composers of the eighteenth century, Handel was the supreme cosmopolitan, an early and extraordinarily successful example of a freelance composer. For thirty years the opera-house was the principal focus of his creative work and he composed more than forty operas over this period....

Cathy Berberian (1925-1983) was a vocal performance artist, singer and composer who pioneered a way of composing with the voice in the musical worlds of Europe, North America and beyond. As a modernist muse for many avant-garde composers, Cathy Berberian went on to embody the principles of postmodern...

During the years preceding the composition of Tristan and Isolde, Wagner's aesthetics underwent a momentous turnaround, principally as a result of his discovery of Schopenhauer. Many of Schopenhauer's ideas, especially those regarding music's metaphysical significance, resonated with patterns of thought...