Opera : a critic's guide to the 100 most important works and the best recordings / Anthony Tommasini.
| Author/creator | Tommasini, Anthony, 1948- |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication Info | New York : Times Books, 2004. |
| Description | xviii, 316 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | New York times essential library New York times essential library. ^A689988 |
| Contents | Preface -- Nixon in China / John Adams -- Bluebeard's castle / Bela Bartok -- Fidelio / Ludwig van Beethoven -- Norma ; I Puritani / Vincenzo Bellini -- Wozzeck ; Lulu / Alan Berg -- Les Troyens / Hector Berlioz -- Carmen / Georges Bizet -- Peter Grimes ; The rape of Lucretia ; Billy Budd ; The turn of the screw ; A midsummer night's dream ; Death in Venice / Benjamin Britten -- Doktor Faust / Ferruccio Busoni -- The tender land / Aaron Copland -- Pelleas et Melisande / Claude Debussy -- L'Elisir d'Amore ; Lucia di Lammermoor / Gaetano Donizetti -- Rusalka / Antonin Dvorak -- Susannah / Carlisle Floyd -- Porgy and Bess / George Gershwin -- Andrea Chenier / Umberto Giordano -- Orfeo ed Euridice ; Iphigenie en Tauride (Iphigenie in Tauris) / Christoph Willibald Gluck -- Romeo et Juliette / Charles Gounod -- Giulio Cesara in Egitto ; Orlando ; Alcina / George Frideric Handel -- Mathis der Maler / Paul Hindemith -- Jenufa ; Kat'a Kabanova ; Vec Makropulos (the makropulos case) / Leos Janacek -- Le Grand Macabre / Gyorgy Ligeti -- Werther / Jules Massenet -- Saint Francois d'Assise / Olivier Messiaen -- Orfeo ; L'Incoronazione di Poppea (The coronation of Poppea) / Claudio Monteverdi -- Mozart operas an introduction -- Idomeneo ; Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (the abduction from the Seraglio) ; Le Nozze di Figaro (the marriage of Figaro) ; Don Giovanni ; Cosi fan tutte (all women do the same) ; Die Zauberflote (the magic flute) / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- Boris Godunov ; Khovanshchina / Modest Mussorgsky -- Les contes d'Hoffman (the tales of Hoffman) / Jacques Offenbach -- Dialogues des Carmelites (dialogues of the Carmelites) -- The gambler ; Semyon Kotko ; Betrothal in a Monastery ; War and Peace / Sergey Prokofiev -- Manon Lescaut ; La Boheme ; Tosca ; Madama Butterfly ; Turandot / Giacomo Puccini -- Dido and Aeneas / Henry Purcell -- L'Enfant et les Sortileges (the child and the spells) / Maurice Ravel -- The legend of the invisible city of Kitezh and the maiden Fevroniya / Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov -- Il Barbiere di Siviglia (the barber of Seville) ; La cenerentola (Cinderella) ; Semiramide / Gioacchino Rossini -- Tjenerindens Fortaelling (the handmaid's tale) / Paul Ruders -- Moses und Aron / Arnold Schoenberg -- Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District / Dmitri Shostakovich -- Sweeney Todd: the demon barber of Fleet street / Stephen Sondheim -- Salome ; Elektra ; Der Rosenkavalier ; Ariadne auf Naxos ; Die Frau ohne Schatten / Richard Strauss -- The rake's progress / Igor Stravinsky -- Eugene Onegin ; Pique Dame (The queen of spades) / Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky -- Four saints in three acts ; The mother of us all / Virgil Thomson -- Macbeth ; Rigoletto ; Il Trovatore (the troubadour) ; La traviata ; Simon Buccanegra ; La Forza del Destina (the force of destiny) ; Don Carlos ; Aida ; Otello ; Falstaff / Giuseppe Verdi -- Der Fliegende Hollander (the flying dutchman) ; Tannhauser ; Der Ring des Nibelungen das rheingold die walkure siegfried gotterdammerung ; Tristan und Isolde ; Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg ; Parsifal / Richard Wagner -- Aufstieg und fall der stadt Mahagonny (rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny) / Kurt Weill -- A night at the Chinese opera / Judith Weir -- Six characters in search of an author / Hugo Weisgall -- The essential twenty -- Selected bibliography find out more about opera. |
| Abstract | Opera intertwines the drama of the theater with the powerful emotionality of music. In this magical and illuminating guide to the best opera recordings, Anthony Tommasini delves into the ways story and music interweave to create the subtle but telling moments that move us. Tommasini brings to life the rich history of opera performance and the singers and conductors who, over the past century, have come to own the music. He chooses masterworks, such as Arturo Toscanini's La Boheme, captured for posterity fifty years after he conducted the opera's 1896 premiere for Puccini, and Leontyne Price's Leonora in Il Trovatore, an encapsulation of the ideal Verdi soprano. For aficionados and newcomers alike, Tommasini is the perfect guide to the passions and playfulness of the opera. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-304) and index. |
| LCCN | 2004049846 |
| ISBN | 0805074597 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk | ML156.4.O46 T66 2004 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |