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Aida by Nicholas John (Volume Editor); Giuseppe Verdi; Edmund Tracey (Translator)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
Aida is, for most of us, the quintessence of Ancient Egypt, but it is certainly not just for archaeologists. Michael Rose points out that it is really about patriotism - an issue of burning importance to Verdi and his contemporaries. Music critic William Mann reflects that even a short look at the score ...Show more
Arabella by Nicholas John (Volume Editor); Richard Strauss; John Gutmann (Translator)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
Written in 1927, Arabella is a portrait - partly romanticized, partly factual - of Habsburg Vienna in the 1860s. It is also a celebration of the profound importance of courage and the ability to forgive in love. Our sympathies are not only drawn to Arabella, who waits for "the right man" to come, but to ...Show more
Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky; Nicholas John (Volume Editor); David Lloyd-Jones (Translator)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
This famous work has had a chequered performance history, and Professor Laurel E. Fay points out that the interpretation of the opera depends on which edition is used. Robert Oldani introduces the "Boris problem": Pushkin's play was not an obvious choice for a young composer, since it had been banned fo ...Show more
Carmen - English National Opera Guide 13 by Georges Bizet; Nicholas John (Volume Editor)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
"Bizet describes himself as 'pagan', and Carmen has a savage Mediterranean beauty quite unique in music. The essays included in this guide suggest some reasons for its legendary theatrical appeal. Martin Cooper describes the traditional mixture of spoken words and song that stimulated Bizet to exclaim, ...Show more
Cosi Fan Tutte by Nicholas John (Volume Editor); Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
"It was a treat so truly intellectual that every ear and every breast, susceptible of harmony and of impression, was gratified to a degree beyond our power to describe." Thus reads one of the first London reviews of Così fan tutte. Its enigmatic mixture of a detached experiment in human foibles and a st ...Show more
Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold) by Richard Wagner; Nicholas John (Volume Editor); Andrew Porter (Translator)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
Das Rheingold, the opening of Wagner's four-part The Ring of the Nibelung, stands out as more genteel and picturesque than the others. But it immediately establishes the huge scale of the overall work, and the extraordinary musical language that will be displayed throughout. It is a miracle of musical h ...Show more
Der Fliegende Holländer by Richard Wagner; Nicholas John (Volume Editor)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
'A Landmark in Musical History' is John Luke Rose's title for the introduction to this extraordinary piece of theatre. It belongs to the German tradition of mystical writing, and a short note on the poem itself by Martin Swales and Timothy McFarland elucidates some of Wagner's literary techniques. Antho ...Show more
Die Meistersinger von Nuïrnberg the Mastersingers of Nuremberg by Richard Wagner; Nicholas John (Volume Editor)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
This opera has been described as "the longest single smile in the German language". But Roland Matthews indicates that violence is not far beneath the surface of this portrait of medieval Nuremberg. Arnold Whittall's analysis gives a bird's-eye view of the complexity of the score. Timothy McFarland expl ...Show more
Die Walkure - (The Valkyrie) by Richard Wagner; Nicholas John (Volume Editor); Andrew Porter (Translator)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
"Things like this are written only for people who have good powers of endurance (so really for nobody!)", wrote Wagner about Die Walküre. Yet, as Geoffrey Skelton points out, the opera has enjoyed a separate popularity and existence from the Ring Cycle. George Gillespie shows just how the string of myth ...Show more
Don Carlos by Nicholas John (Volume Editor); Giuseppe Verdi
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
It used to be thought that Verdi miscalculated with this attempt at a "grand opera" in the French style. This guide demonstrates that Don Carlos was - and remains - an extraordinary achievement in melding two opposing visions of opera: the spectacular public aspect of the French tradition with the drama ...Show more
Falstaff by Nicholas John (Volume Editor); Giuseppe Verdi; Andrew Porter (Translator)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
"A lyric comedy unlike any other", wrote Verdi about his last opera. That the last work of a composer who was almost notorious for his preference for tragic and gloomy subjects should be a brilliant human comedy was and remains one of the wonders of music. Michael Rose considers its status in Italian co ...Show more
Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) by Richard Wagner; Nicholas John (Volume Editor); Andrew Porter (Translator)
$24.99 AUD
Category: Classic Fiction | Series: Overtures Ser.
Richard Wagner's fifteen-hour operatic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung ends with this great music drama. Michael Tanner's essay tackles the scale and meaning not just of this work but of Wagner's whole undertaking, showing that Götterdämmerung is - for all its length - his fastest-moving drama. Composer ...Show more