Puccini Without Excuses
A Refreshing Reassessment of the World's Most Popular Composer
Written by William Berger

Format: Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 8, 2005
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7778-6 (1-4000-7778-8)

Puccini is the most beloved composer of opera in the world: one quarter of all opera performances in the U.S. are of his operas, his music pervades movie soundtracks, and his plots have infiltrated our popular culture. But, although Puccini’s art still captivates audiences and the popularity of such works as... Read more >

Verdi With a Vengeance
An Energetic Guide to the Life and Complete Works of the King of Opera
Written by William Berger

Format: Trade Paperback, 512 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 12, 2000
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70518-2 (0-375-70518-X)

Discover the world of the most popular opera composer of all time: entombed lovers (Aida), tragic courtesans (La Traviata), Shakespearean heroes (Otello and Macbeth), and even Attila the Hun (Attila) populate Verdi's operas, and this introductory guide shows us why Verdi's music is coming back--"with a vengeance."

From the composer's intense... Read more >

Wagner Without Fear
Learning to Love--and Even Enjoy--Opera's Most Demanding Genius
Written by William Berger

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 29, 1998
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70054-5 (0-375-70054-4)

William Berger is the most helpful guide one could hope to find for navigating the strange and beautiful world of the most controversial artist who ever lived. He tells you all you need to know—from story lines to historical background;from the Jewish legend that possibly inspired Lohengrin to the tragic death... Read more >

The American Opera Singer
The lives & adventures of America's great singers in opera & concert from 1825 to the present
Edited by Peter G. Davis

Format: Trade Paperback, 640 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: March 16, 1999
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-42174-4 (0-385-42174-5)

In America today, opera has never been more popular, and one reason for this is, no doubt, that American opera singers are fixtures on every leading opera stage throughout the world. In this lively and engrossing account, Peter G. Davis, music critic for New York magazine and a leading opera authority... Read more >

An Invitation to the Opera

Written by John L. Digaetani

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: January 1, 1991
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-26339-9 (0-385-26339-2)

This invaluable primer will ntroduce the uninitiated to the mysteries of opera and helps more experienced buffs expand their understanding and deepen their appreciation of the art form. It provides an accesible and completely comprehensive look at opera's rich heritage and includes information such as:

•A retelling of opera's history, from its... Read more >

Molto Agitato
The Mayhem Behind the Muisc at the Metropolitan Opera
Written by Johanna Fiedler

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 9, 2003
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3231-0 (1-4000-3231-8)

If the opera world is full of “intrigue, double meanings, and devious dramatics,” then no place exemplifies this more than the world-famous Metropolitan Opera, where politics, ambition, and oversized egos have traditionally taken center stage along with some of the world’s richest music. Drawing on her fifteen years as its press... Read more >

A Night at the Opera
An Irreverent Guide to The Plots, The Singers, The Composers, The Recordings
Written by Sir Denis Forman

Format: Trade Paperback, 976 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: September 1, 1998
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-75176-9 (0-375-75176-9)

With an encyclopedic knowledge of opera and a delightful dash of irreverence, Sir Denis Forman throws open the world of opera—its structure, composers, conductors, and artists—in this hugely informative guide.

A Night at the Opera dissects the eighty-three most popular operas recorded on compact disc, from Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur to Mozart's... Read more >

Cinderella and Company
Backstage at the Opera with Cecilia Bartoli
Written by Manuela Hoelterhoff

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 5, 1999
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-70712-4 (0-375-70712-3)

A wickedly funny look at opera today—he feuds and deals, maestros and managers, divine voices and outsized egos—and a portrait of the opera world's newest superstar at a formative point in her life and career.

        In Cinderella & Company, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Manuela Hoelterhoff takes us on a two-year trip on the... Read more >

Opera and the Morbidity of Music

Written by Joseph Kerman

Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Publisher: New York Review Books
On Sale: April 8, 2008
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-1-59017-265-0 (1-59017-265-5)

The death of classical music, the distinguished critic and musicologist Joseph Kerman declares, is “a tired, vacuous concept that will not die.” In this wide-ranging collection of essays and reviews, Kerman examines the ongoing vitality of the classical music tradition, from the days of Guillaume Dufay, John Taverner, and William Byrd... Read more >

Do You Dream in Color?
Insights from a Girl Without Sight
Written by Laurie Rubin

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Triangle Square
On Sale: October 23, 2012
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-60980-424-4 (1-60980-424-4)

Colors, Rubin tells us, affect everyone through sound, smell, taste, and a vast array of emotions and atmospheres. She explains that although she has been blind since birth, she has experienced color all her life.

In her memoir Do You Dream in Color?, Laurie Rubin looks back on her life as an... Read more >

100 Great Operas And Their Stories
Act-By-Act Synopses
Written by Henry W. Simon

Format: Trade Paperback, 560 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: April 22, 1989
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-05448-5 (0-385-05448-3)

An invaluable guide for both casual opera fans and afficionados, this volume contains act-by-act descriptions of operatic works ranging from the early seventeenth century masterworks of Monteverdi and Purcell to the modern classics of Menotti and Britten. Written in a lively anecdotal style, entries include character descriptions, historical background, and much... Read more >

Stage Makeup
The Actor's Complete Guide to Today's Techniques and Materials
Written by Laura Thudium

Format: Trade Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Back Stage Books
On Sale: April 1, 1999
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-8230-8839-3 (0-8230-8839-1)

This up-to-date, full-color makeup manual is designed to lie open on the makeup table right as a guide for student, amateur, or professional performers.

Whether you are an actor in a summer-stock or regional theater, an acting conservatory program, a high-school or college production, a community theater, a local holiday pageant...or... Read more >

The Toughest Show on Earth

Written by Joseph Volpe and Charles Michener

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 9, 2007
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-9675-6 (1-4000-9675-8)

A fascinating, anecdote-filled behind-the-scenes look at more than forty years of the highlights, successes, and day-to-day inner workings—all about productions, the divas, and backstage dramas—of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, by Joseph Volpe, the only general manager to have risen through the ranks.

This book is the story of Volpe’s years... Read more >

The Toughest Show on Earth
My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera
Written by Joseph Volpe

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: May 2, 2006
Price: $25.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-26285-1 (0-307-26285-5)

A fascinating, anecdote-filled behind-the-scenes look at more than forty years of the highlights, successes, and day-to-day inner workings—all about productions, the divas, and backstage dramas—of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, by Joseph Volpe, the only general manager to have risen through the ranks.

This book is the story of Volpe’s years... Read more >