Opera is one of the world's most dramatic art forms. It inspires such dedication among its followers that many will travel the globe for a chance to watch their favourite operas performed in world-famous venues. This handy reference guide from Classic FM covers the major milestones and composers in the history of opera, featuring some of the greatest works ever written, to help you discover the extraordinary world of opera. Some of classical music's most famous works are found in opera, an...

Film music is an increasingly popular part of the classical music repertoire, with a huge range of beautiful, dramatic and well-loved film scores coming out of Hollywood, from Star Wars to Up. From the early days of silent cinema through Hollywood's Golden Age and up to the modern-day blockbusters, this handy reference guide from Classic FM showcases some of the greatest composers of film scores, along with plenty of suggestions for musical delights ready to be discovered. Classical music ...

Whether you own a business, freelance, or want to stand out from the crowd for personal reasons, THIS is the book for you!Containing dozens of the best works from the syndicated newspaper column Ask Mr. Marketing, this collection consistently delivers solid nuts & bolts advice that can be used immediately, with wisdom, wit, and a user-friendly tone.Highlights include:Clear-cut insights into both traditional and novel communications tools....

Chronicling the landmark events in Beethoven's life, this book enhances understanding of the composer's character, inspiring a deeper appreciation for his work.George Alexander Fischer illuminates the composer’s difficult childhood, his struggle to maintain friendships and romances, his ungovernable temper, his obsessive efforts to control his nephew’s life, and the excruciating decline of his hearing. This absorbing narrative provides a comprehensive account of a momentous life, as...

First published in 1878. Chapters cover: Bach, Handel, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Web, Mendelssohn, and Wagner.

This is the first literal, word-for-word translation of Wagners epic masterwork with the full German text. It is at once reliable and readable, adhering closely to the original verse form and to Wagners poetic intentions. The German text is given in parallel, and Spencer also contributes illuminating footnotes and an introductory essay. Specially commissioned essays discuss the Cycles musical structure, its philosophical implications, its medieval sources and Wagners own changing attitude ...

The Gilded Stage is a comprehensive tour of the world of opera. From its origins in the courts of northern Italy, to its internationally recognised position in modern culture, Snowman explores the social history of opera houses and impresarios, composers and patrons, artists and audiences.Even the most flamboyant composers could scarcely have imagined the global reach of opera in our own times. More opera is performed, financed, seen, heard, filmed and broadcast than ever ...

Although the story of Figaro's success in preventing the Count of Almaviva's seduction of his fiancée Susanna was politically explosive, it was tolerated in the court of the relatively enlightened Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. Mozart's opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, uses a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, and was premièred in Vienna in 1786. It was based on a famous play by the Frenchman Beaumarchais, a sequel to The Barber of Seville. Characters including Figaro, the Countess, Cherubino the page, ...

With a wealth of famous tunes and meticulous characterisation, Don Giovanni is an undisputed masterpiece created by Mozart out of a thread-bare fairground gig. The Don – for whom both sexes have a sneaking admiration – gatecrashes proceedings, serenading and seducing as he goes. As wily as he is insatiable, he outclasses all who are out to get him, including a jealous bumpkin and the down-at-heel Elvira. But a stone statue seals his doom and drags him down into hellfire. From the Champagne...

' Sometimes I liken the creative act to that of being a good gardener. The musical material itself, the harmonies, rhythms, the timbres and tempi, are seeds you have planted. Composing, bringing forth the final formal arrangement of these elements, is often a business of watching them grow, knowing when to nourish and water them and when to prune and weed.'A book unlike anything ever written by a composer, part memoir and part description of the creative process, Halle...

In Ticket to the Opera, Phil G. Goulding finally makes the magic and mystique of opera accessible to all. Here he offers a complete operatic education, including history, definitions of key musical terms, opera lore and gossip, portraits of famous singers and the roles they immortalized, as well as pithy introductions to the greatest operas of Europe and America and their composers. The book's centerpiece is what Goulding terms "the collection"--85 classics, among them Aida, The Marriage o...

Britten's opera Peter Grimes is based on George Crabbe's horrifying poem The Borough about early 19th century Aldeburgh, a North Sea fishing town in East Anglia. Its premiere at Sadlers Wells in 1945, shortly after VE Day, was a landmark moment in British operatic history. Britten's partner Peter Pears – like Britten a pacifist and conscientious objector – was in the title role. Britten and Pears, together with Montagu Slater, a communist journalist, created the libretto.Grimes, a fisherma...