Showing titles in Opera

At eight years old, Ricky Ian Gordon pulled The Victor Book of Opera off his piano teacher’s bookshelf, and his world shifted on its axis. Though scandal, sadness, and confusion would shake that world over the next few decades, its polestar remained constant. Music has been the guiding force of Gordon’s life; through it, he has been able not only to survive great sorrow but also to capture the depths of his emotion in song. It is this strength, this technical and visceral genius, that has made him one of our generation’s greatest composers.

Discover the thrilling, often shocking stories of opera’s greatest forbidden works in The Forbidden Operas: Banned, Lost, and Forgotten Works from the Opera World. Journey through the world of classical music where composers, driven by vision and passion, pushed the boundaries of their time, only to have their masterpieces censored, suppressed, or lost to history. Why were these operas banned? How did politics, power, and societal norms influence what was allowed on stage? From the suppression of Mozart’s secret Masonic symbols to the fiery revolution in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, ...

Alex Ross, renowned New Yorker music critic and author of the international best seller and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics - an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.

A Grand American Stage: A Comprehensive History of Opera in the United States Opera in America has always been more than music—it is a reflection of the nation’s evolving cultural, social, and artistic identity. A Grand American Stage is the most comprehensive exploration of opera’s journey in the United States, from its earliest days in makeshift theaters to the grandeur of the Metropolitan Opera and the rise of regional companies that bring this art form to every corner of the country. Renowned music historian Richard Fleischman takes readers on an immersive journey through more ...

With war clouds gathering and harassment increasing, the stars of Continental opera, many of whom are Jewish, face dark futures under the boot heel of the Nazis. What can two middle-aged British spinsters do about such matters? They can form a secret cabal right under Hitler’s nose and get to work saving lives. The sisters conspire to bring together worldwide opera aficionados and insiders in an international operation to rescue Jews in the opera from the horrific fate that everyone intuits is coming.

Ryan Speedo Green had a tough upbringing in Southeastern Virginia: His family lived in a trailer park and later a bullet-riddled house across the street from drug dealers. His father was absent; his mother was volatile and abusive. At the age of 12, Ryan was sent to Virginia's juvenile facility of last resort. He was placed in solitary confinement. He was uncontrollable, uncontainable, with little hope for the future. In 2011, at the age of 24, Ryan won a nationwide competition hosted by New York's Metropolitan Opera, beating out 1,200 other talented singers.

Here is the colorful story of sometimes temperamental composers and even more temperamental singers working in an art form which has produced some of man's noblest artistic creations. This absorbing history is illustrated by over 100 musical examples by Naxos artists as well as some of the greatest singers of the 20th century, including Enrico Caruso and Fyodor Chaliapin.

Known as opera’s “disrupter-in-residence,” director Yuval Sharon has never adhered to the art form’s conventions. In his many productions in both the United States and Europe, he constantly challenges the perception of opera as aloof by urging, among other things: performing operas in “non-places,” such as parking lots; encouraging the use of amplification; and shuffling the traditional structure of classic works, like performing Puccini’s La bohème in reverse order, ending not with the tubercular heroine Mimi’s death but with her first falling in love.

Classical Music for the Modern Listener: Breaking Down Barriers to the Great Composers Unlock the world of classical music like never before! Whether you’re a curious beginner or someone who’s long been intrigued by the timeless beauty of classical compositions, Classical Music for the Modern Listener is your ultimate guide to understanding, enjoying, and connecting with the world’s greatest music. In this accessible, engaging book, you’ll discover how classical music evolved, how to listen to its many forms, and how you can experience it more deeply—without feeling overwhelmed by...

Opera is the fastest growing of all the performing arts, attracting audiences of all ages who are enthralled by the gorgeous music, vivid drama, and magnificent production values. If you've decided that the time has finally come to learn about opera and discover for yourself what it is about opera that sends your normally reserved friends into states of ecstatic abandon, this is the book for you.

There are few art forms as visceral and emotional as opera - and few that are as daunting for newcomers. A Mad Love offers a spirited and indispensable tour of opera's eclectic past and present, beginning with Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in 1607, generally considered the first successful opera, through classics like Carmen and La Boheme, and spanning to Brokeback Mountain and The Death of Klinghoffer in recent years.

For anyone who has been intimidated, overwhelmed, or just plain confused by what they think opera is, Who’s Afraid of Opera? offers a lively, easy-to-follow guide to what author Michael Walsh describes as “the greatest art form yet invented by humankind.” From opera’s origins in Renaissance Italy to the Who’s rock odyssey “Tommy”, and Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods”, Walsh explores what opera is and what it’s not, what makes a great singer, and why it takes Tristan so long to die.

Madama Butterfly runs the gamut of operatic emotions. The title heroine has a fragility wonderfully expressed in her entry music, deep sexual instincts as shown in the love duet, and immense tragic stature in her last hours. The fate of Madama Butterfly - married to an American sailor and then abandoned - engages our emotions to a degree equaled by few other opera heroines. The oriental setting and the exquisite orchestral and choral writings are treasured bonuses.

Richard Wagner’s “total work of art,” the monumental, gripping, and fathomlessly deep story of the ring of the Nibelung, is here translated and narrated in a completely new fashion: breathless and distilled, it becomes the most exciting suspense novel of the opera world. The author follows the creator, dividing the spectacle into its four parts, “Rhinegold,” “The Valkyrie,” “Siegfried,” and finally, “Twilight of the Gods.” He leads his readers through the scenic festival that takes roughly thirteen hours when staged. They say money corrupts, or money is the root of all...

"Wagner's Ring Motifs" is aimed in the first instance at listeners new to the Ring and is intended to convey the fascination of Wagner's music...

La Traviata owes its enduring popularity to a superb story of young love and fatal sacrifice, set to music by Italy’s master melodist at the peak of his powers. Interest and poignancy are added by the fact that this is a true story - the baritone ‘heavy’ is Alexander Dumas who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo. But it is the central figure, the heroine Violetta, the archetypal ‘whore with the heart of gold’ who dominates the piece. It is her opera and we love her for it.

The Castrati: The Forgotten Men of Opera (Rediscovering Classical Music) For over two centuries, they were the superstars of the opera world—revered, envied, and worshipped like demigods. With voices that defied nature, soaring effortlessly from haunting whispers to dazzling virtuosity, the castrati became the most celebrated and controversial figures in music history. Yet today, their names are barely remembered, their once-glorious voices lost to time. In The Castrati: The Forgotten Men of Opera, renowned performer and music historian [Your Name] pulls back the curtain on these ...

Aria After Aria is an illuminating journey through the history and evolution of the operatic voice, tracing the monumental changes in vocal technique, style, and artistic expression from the early days of opera to the modern era. Spanning centuries of operatic history, this compelling book delves deep into the legendary voices that shaped opera as we know it today, and the fascinating transformations that have defined each musical period. From the Baroque period, when singers like Farinelli and Senesino reigned supreme, to the Golden Age of Bel Canto with icons such as Maria Malibran and ...

The Forgotten Operas of Black Composers is a groundbreaking exploration of the operatic works by Black composers whose voices have been largely erased from the historical canon. In this compelling and accessible book, Richard Fleischman delves deep into the lives and legacies of visionary composers like Chevalier de Saint-Georges, William Grant Still, Florence Price, Scott Joplin, and many others who defied the constraints of their time to create operas that speak to the Black experience and the universal themes of humanity, struggle, and resilience. With a keen eye on both historical ...

The attraction of opera is in its scale, in the fact that it is larger than real life in actions and emotions, more magnificent in sound and in sight. And in the world of opera, no figure in our time loomed larger than the late Luciano Pavarotti. Especially in his triumphant collaborations with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, he captured the imagination of an audience breadth and depth is remarkable even in the grand context of classical opera.