Black Dog Opera Library Deluxe Box Set (Black Dog Opera Library)

Book Description

The Black Dog Opera Library is one of the most popular, informative, and budget-friendly ways to enjoy all the great operas. Each book in the series includes a history of the opera, a synopsis of the story, a complete libretto in its original language as well as in English, and dozens of photographs and drawings depicting great scenes, singers, performances, and more. Each book also includes an excellent Angel/EMI recording of the entire opera on two CDs, as well as commentary from experts in the field who guide you through the music as you listen.

Customer Reviews:

AN A (AS IN "ARIA") FOR THIS SET OF WORDS AND MUSIC.......2006-01-03

The marriage between words and music has never been better produced. And more popularly priced. Each volume includes two compact discs with the complete opera, as well as a hardcover book containing the libretto in it original language and an English translation with annotated commentary and expert commentary. Stunning color photographs illustrate the history of the opera and the production's performers, including Grace Bumbry, Birgit Nilsson, Renata Scotto and Franco Corelli. The slipcased set includes Aida, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, La Traviata and The Marriage of Figaro; each volume is also priced individually. Break out the bubbles ... that's "bubbles" as in Beverly Sills, the star of La Traviata.

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Puccini: His International Art
Michele Girardi
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Puccini: His Life and Works (Master Musicians Series)

ASIN: 0226297586

Book Description

Puccini's operas are among the most popular and widely performed in the world, yet few books have examined his body of work from an analytical perspective. This volume remedies that lack in lively prose accessible to scholars and opera enthusiasts alike.

Puccini: His Life and Works (Master Musicians Series)

Average customer rating:

An excellent Musical Bio.

Puccini: His Life and Works (Master Musicians Series)
Julian Budden
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Puccini: A Biography
Operas of Puccini (Cornell Paperbacks)
Puccini Without Excuses: A Refreshing Reassessment of the World's Most Popular Composer
Puccini: His International Art
The Operas of Verdi: Volume 3: From Don Carlos to Falstaff (Operas of Verdi)

ASIN: 0198164688

Book Description

Julian Budden, one of the world's foremost scholars of Italian opera and author of a monumental three-volume study of Verdi's works, now offers music lovers a major new biography of one of the giants of Italian opera, Giacomo Puccini. Blending astute musical analysis with a colorful account of Puccini's life, here is an illuminating look at some of the most popular operas in the repertoire, including Manon Lescaut, La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. Budden provides an illuminating look at the process of putting an opera together, the cut-and-slash of nineteenth-century Italian opera--the struggle to find the right performers for the debut of La Boheme, Puccini's anxiety about completing Turandot (he in fact died of cancer before he did so), his animosity toward his rival Leoncavallo (whom he called Leonasino or "lion-ass"). Budden provides an informative analysis of the operas themselves, examining the music act by act. He highlights, among other things, the influence of Wagner on Puccini--alone among his Italian contemporaries, Puccini followed Wagner's example in bringing the motif into the forefront of his narrative, sometimes voicing the singer's unexpressed thoughts, sometimes sending out a signal to the audience of which the character is unaware. And Budden also paints an intriguing portrait of Puccini the man--talented but modest, a man who had friends from every walk of life: shopkeepers, priests, wealthy landowners, fellow artists. Affable, well mannered, gifted with a broad sense of fun, he rarely failed to charm all who met him. A new volume in the esteemed Master Musicians series, Puccini offers a masterful portrait of this beloved Italian composer.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent Musical Bio........2006-04-01

Having read nearly all of the books on Puccini, I feel at least competent to evaluate them. The one that moved Puccini to the level of "worth a book" was Mosco Carner's 1959 book, Puccini, a Critical Biography. The information given was fairly accurate for what was known then. The main fault was the continuing"character analyisis" of the composer. In the 60's Wm. Ashbrook wrote a book on the operas. It too is accurate in presenting many new and interesting facts as well as fasitnating interpretations.In addition it is very well written. Since then there have been a number of other books on the composer and his operas. Of the latest two; Budden and Matz, I must choose Budden. Before discussing Budden's merits, I should say that Matz's book is an excellent chronicle of Puccini's life and filled with anecdotes and interesting facts.It is an entertaining read. The basic problem,for me, is it pretty well leaves the music alone. While Puccini's life is certainly interesting, his music is what is most important, at least for me. Budden's book does a fine job of combining Puccini's life and discussing the music. He writes most effectively about the operas. Their creation struggles. Their multipule revisions. The facts are accurate and presented clearly. He writes with a clarity about music that is both refreshing and rare. There is one other book on Puccini I would like to mention and that is a very expensive one [why??] published by Chicago University and written by Michael Girardi. It presents a most original view of the operas but it is not easy to read. It is stimulating. I hope this helps you decide.
Thanks;
Paul Zappa

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Okay Story
Clop, Clop
That Summer
terrific drama
Musical madness

Puccini's Ghosts
Morag Joss
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Half Broken Things
Fearful Symmetry (Sara Selkirk Mysteries)
The Night Gardener
Funeral Music (Sara Selkirk Mysteries)
Fruitful Bodies (Sara Selkirk Mysteries)

ASIN: 038533978X
Release Date: 2006-08-29

Book Description

CWA Silver Dagger Award winner Morag Joss peers into the soul of a wounded family in this haunting, harrowing masterpiece of psychological suspense. With equal parts subtlety and menace, Joss takes us on a dizzying journey toward a collision between fantasy and reality—and an astounding moment of revelation that shatters illusions, hopes, and lives forever.

The year is 1960. The place is a Scottish seaside town utterly devoid of culture and charm. Here, Lila lives as the third player in her parents’ dramatically embittered marriage. Until her flamboyant, irrepressible uncle George shows up from London and her family decides to squander a windfall on the most preposterous of causes: a civic production of the Puccini opera Turandot.

Lila knows nothing of opera and little of her uncle or the dashing young man he hires to sing the role of Calaf. But Lila does know passion. Because it’s coursing through her veins—and rushing blindly, wildly all around her. Now a girl on the verge of womanhood is about to blunder into a grown-up world where secrets are kept and exposed, hopes soar and wither, and where crimes petty and great exact the most chilling punishments of all.

Masterfully paced and spellbinding till its final, haunting scene, Puccini’s Ghosts is a piercing look into the fierce darkness that lurks behind seemingly ordinary lives.

Customer Reviews:

Okay Story.......2007-08-27

I loved Joss's "Half Broken Things," so decided to give this a try. This book was missing that enchantment, some of the characters were very two-dimensional and stereotypical, and the moving back and forth in tense and POV got to me. The plot did move along slowly at times--No real storyline other than the putting together of the opera, and Lily's crush on Joe, and almost all the characters were unlikeable other than Lily and her friend's mother, but it was still an enjoyable read.

Clop, Clop.......2007-01-11

Like watching an old nag plodding through a field. The characters are unlikeable; the plot just made me tired.

That Summer.......2006-10-05

An unhappy middle-aged woman, estranged from her family, goes home after many years for her father's funeral. While putting his effects in order, she recalls the long-ago summer of 1960, when she was a reckless, dreamy 15-year-old. Piece by piece, memory by memory, we witness the devastating series of events that destroyed her and her world.

This is my favorite kind of mystery--a psychological suspense story of the heart and mind. The main character, Liza, is a vivid creation, and her family is unforgettable. PUCCINI'S GHOSTS is a haunting, heartbreaking, peculiarly British tale in the style of Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters, by one of the best new voices in mystery fiction. (Her previous novel, HALF BROKEN THINGS, is also excellent.)

terrific drama .......2006-09-02

When her father dies, retired opera chorister, Lila DuCann, returns to her hometown Burnhead, Scotland to attend his funeral. She has been away from the town for years and has not seen her dad in a long time. Thus when she grieves her loss she is taken aback as memories of 1960, the fateful "Turandot Summer" when she was fifteen years old, flow freely.

Her lunatic thirtyish Uncle George Pettifer, a London music teacher, obstinately decides to direct a local production of Puccini's opera Turandot starring Lila's mom Florence "Fleur" Duncan as the title character and Lila in the support female role as slave girl Liu. Local amateur musicians and singers round out the cast. Thus only Fleur had any real experience and she never moved far up the singer's food chain. However Fleur felt she was just one song from being discovered and being treated like a pampered adored Prima Donna. To provide some quality, George brings his London friend Joe Foscari to serve as the male lead. Lila falls in love her first crush, but the failed presentation only highlighted the flop of her family leading to a tragedy and a teen in exile from her home.

PUCCINI'S GHOSTS is a terrific drama that grips readers as they wonder what happened in the summer of 1960 that destroyed a family. As Lila tells the tale from her perspective looking back to when she was a teen, fans will soon wonder whether she can delineate reality from a fantasy created perhaps out of FEARFUL SYMMETRY of what is truth. Morag Joss provides a virtuoso performance (sans Sara Selkirk) with the attendees listening to FUNERAL MUSIC and knowing first hand about dreams of HALF BROKEN THINGS.

Harriet Klausner

Musical madness.......2005-11-30

Retired opera chorister, Lila DuCann, returns to her home town to bury her father, after an absence of many years. The unexpected grief she experiences causes her mind to slip back and forth between the present time and the time when, as a 15 year old, she took part in what was to be a local production of Puccini's opera, Turandot. Her uncle George conceived the crazy plan of producing the opera in a large, local barn, using untrained locals as singers and musicians, with Lila's mother Fleur, a former small time singer, in the lead role and Lila in the secondary female role. Fleur, always an unstable wannabe, sees herself as an undiscovered diva and behaves accordingly, while Lila discovers that she has an undiscovered talent as a soprano. Geoge introduces Joe, a friend from London, as the male lead, who immediately becomes the object of Lila's first major crush. The ensuing fiasco highlights the entire family's terrible unhappiness, and results in tragedy and misery all around. It's not a happy book but is certainly a brilliant piece of writing.

Giacomo Puccini: La Bohème (Cambridge Opera Handbooks)

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Giacomo Puccini: La Bohème (Cambridge Opera Handbooks)
Arthur Groos , and Roger Parker
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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W. A. Mozart: Così fan tutte (Cambridge Opera Handbooks)
Opera's Second Death
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Georges Bizet: Carmen (Cambridge Opera Handbooks)

ASIN: 0521264898

Book Description

This guide presents a unique collection of critical, analytical, and documentary essays on Puccini’s most popular opera. There are new studies on the background to Parisian bohemianism (by Jerrold Seigel), on Puccini’s musical language (by William Drabkin), and on the opera’s stage history (by William Ashbrook). Following research in Italian archives, and a thorough study of the published sources (many of them previously unknown to modern scholarship), the editors have added further essays on the genesis of the opera, the structure of the libretto, and aspects of the work’s reception. The book also contains a brief study of Puccini’s working methods as seen through the autograph score, a full synopsis, discography, many illustrations, and an appendix of related documents (some published in English for the first time).

Puccini Without Excuses: A Refreshing Reassessment of the World's Most Popular Composer

Average customer rating:

The author understands that opera is the greatest art form.
A decent introduction
An amazing, long-overdue book!
Puccini with Many Excuses - Not That He Needs Them
opera revealed

Puccini Without Excuses: A Refreshing Reassessment of the World's Most Popular Composer
William Berger
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Verdi With a Vengeance: An Energetic Guide to the Life and Complete Works of the King of Opera
Wagner Without Fear: Learning to Love--and Even Enjoy--Opera's Most Demanding Genius
Tosca's Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective
Puccini: A Biography
The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera

ASIN: 1400077788
Release Date: 2005-11-08

Book Description

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 Tosca, La Boh?me, and Madama Butterfly has never waned, he has long been a victim of critical snobbery and cultural marginalization.
In this witty and informative guide for beginners and fans alike, William Berger sets the record straight, reclaiming Puccini as a serious artist. Combining his trademark irreverent humor with passionate enthusiasm, Berger strikes just the right balance of introductory information and thought-provoking analysis. He includes a biography, discussions of each opera, a glossary, fun facts and anecdotes, and above all keen insight into Puccini’s enduring power. For anyone who loves Puccini and for anyone who just wonders what all the fuss is about, Puccini Without Excuses is funny, challenging, and always a pleasure to read.

INCLUDES:
_ Why Puccini’s art and its message of hope is crucial to our world today
_ How Anglo audiences often miss the mythic significance of his operas
_ The use of his music as shorthand in films, from A Room with a View to Fatal Attraction
_ A scene-by scene analysis of each opera
_ A guide to the wealth of available recordings, books, and videos

Customer Reviews:

The author understands that opera is the greatest art form........2007-09-06

I am doing research for a program to be given during a Great Operatic Moments by Puccini concert with the Heartland Chamber Chorale and this book not only helped in preparation of this program, it was fun to read and well organized. Having heard many operas, including three where the singer was mute and walked the role while the voice came from the orchestra pit, I am familiar with many performances of Puccini. This book will enhance my next time at La Boheme (Lyric Opera, Chicago). I believe this is the book which will help anyone hear Puccini for the first time and delight the experienced listener. Funny and informative.

A decent introduction.......2007-08-24

I would only recommend this book to someone beginning to explore Puccini who was desperate for a guidebook. With the exception of the useful biography in the beginning there is not much in here that one could not discover on their own by listening to recordings of the operas.
I found most of the commentary shallow.
Potential buyers should know that most of this book is a summary of Puccini's major operas (Edgar is not included).
Part Three, "The Puccini Code" is quite disappointing. I had hoped I would gain some deeper appreciation for Puccini but I came away unsure that there was anything I did not discover on my own.

Sometimes, Berger could not help taking unwarranted strikes at Wagner. This is strange for someone who wrote a book about Wagner and certainly knows better than to resort to clichés about his operas. At one point he even suggests that racial purity is a theme in Wagner's opera. If there are arguments to be made here, they should be made and not stuck in, unjustified, in a book on Puccini. He levels a similarly unjustified charge of racism on some of Puccini's critics. Mispronouncing "Turandot" . . . "slightly racist."

My advice, save your money and buy recordings or tickets. Puccini's brilliance is there. You do not need Berger to hold your hand through the process.

An amazing, long-overdue book!.......2006-07-10

Finally, someone has validated Puccini's worth as a composer! While other attempts have been made at this, they tend to take an approach that is very objective and scholarly. While this is one way to approach an analysis of music, this book's straightforward, at times downright blunt, approach is a refreshing antidote to the overly cerebral tone of many other books. Puccini knew all the 'rules' of composition and chose to ignore or modify many of them in order to get to the raw emotions of his characters and audiences alike. It has long been my feeling that anyone who claims not to enjoy Puccini's works is either too caught up in academic snobbery or too afraid of his/her emotions to feel the beauty of his works. This book is a vindication for not only Puccini and his operas but for his fans and those who perform his works.

Puccini with Many Excuses - Not That He Needs Them.......2006-02-13

William Berger has written a book for operatic neophytes (as he did in his previous books 'Wagner Without Fear' and 'Verdi with a Vengeance') who want to learn more about opera in general and about Puccini in particular, and yet who have little background with which to understand a full-length book about the life and works of a single composer. I am no operatic neophyte, but I learned much from this book and was completely engaged throughout, even when I was disagreeing with some of the author's points. Make no mistake, Berger has a charming, informal, chatty style that sweeps the reader up into Puccini's world. My only real complaint about the book is that Berger seems to protest too much about Puccini's worth. He takes up the cudgels against those pedantic critics and musicologists who cast aspersions on Puccini's artistic value. It strikes me that the neophyte is not all that interested in this battle in the first place and that this is a battle long since won anyhow. No matter, Berger gets in plenty of blows for Puccini, probably more than Puccini actually needs these days.

The book has several sections. After a somewhat tendentious introduction, we get a chatty yet informative life and times chapter which also includes a description of what was going on in the wider world of opera and classical music during Puccini's life. There are fascinating comments about, say, the relationship between Puccini and Toscanini in this section.

Then we get a chapter by chapter discussion of each of the mature operas, beginning with Manon Lescaut and ending with Turandot. Each opera's chapter has an exhaustive discussion of each scene of the stage action, followed by really quite wonderful ruminations on the musical and production issues of each scene. Berger's comments are generally witty and almost always spot on. He also manages to include some of the gossip extant about various productions, singers, stage directors and conductors.

Then comes a section called 'The Puccini Code' which focuses on the myth of Tosca (one of the weaker chapters in my opinion), 'what one might expect to see' in various productions, and a little coda called 'Puccinian Permutations' which comments on influences the various operas (and the Puccini style) have had on popular culture; think of 'Rent' and 'Moonstruck', for instance.

Finally, there is a section in which Berger discusses recordings of the major operas, with comments about various singers, conductors (and he pulls no punches here) as well as some mention of DVDs and videotapes. He ends this section with a listing and comments about important books on his subject. The book ends with a glossary of terms (helpful for the neophyte, certainly, but without a pronunciation guide, which he had earlier supplied for the names of the operas; that might have been helpful. Can you pronounce 'morbidezza' or 'Regietheater'?). The book contains a fairly full index. Editing and production values are quite good (although I suspect director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and baritone Simon Keenlyside might have preferred their names be spelled correctly). The paperback's cover features a blow-up of a photo of the young Puccini taken from a 'musical celebrities cigarette card series.' (!)

I would recommend this book not only to the newcomer to opera but also to grizzled opera veterans who think they already know everything there is to know about Puccini.

Scott Morrison

opera revealed.......2006-01-16

Rebeccasreads highly recommends PUCCINI WITHOUT EXCUSES as one of the more unusual books you'll read about the popular culture of the late 19th & early 20th centuries. It is neither heavy-handed nor trivial because William Berger has a delightful sense of humor & an engaging way of expressing his passion - opera!

If you're a movie buff, you'll have heard snatches of a Puccini aria or musical interlude from THE GODFATHER III to MOONSTRUCK, & if you listen to any of this genius' legacy: LA BOHEME, MADAME BUTTERFLY, TOSCA, & his other five operas, you'll find the music quite familiar.

You'll find out why William Berger thinks Puccini is relevant in today's world in his analyses of the eight operas, the last of which is the unfinished TURANDOT. & you'll also find that Puccini's life was itself worthy of... a soap opera.

Even as I was enjoying the read, I learnt a lot -- about the history of the times, music, collaborations & domestic drama. Bravo!

Average customer rating:

Love the entire Black Dog Opera Library Series
If you like Tosca, you'll love this book
Awful
The perfect melding of music and drama.

Tosca in Full Score
Giacomo Puccini
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 048626937X

Amazon.com

Here is one of Puccini's greatest hits, in an affordable version for complete orchestra. This story of love, art and death in Rome during the Napoleonic wars is today considered a classic for such arias as "Vissi d'arte" (I lived for art; I lived for love), but at its premiere in 1900 it was denounced as "a shabby little shocker," for things like Baron Scarpia's lechery and Tosca's termination of him with extreme prejudice. Be aware that Dover's scores are reprints from other companies that are now out of copyright; that means that they're older versions, and lack such amenities as English translations.

Book Description

One of the most performed and recorded operas of all time, with an intense drama turning on lust, revenge and betrayal; sumptuous musical scoring; and two of opera’s most famous arias, "Vissi d’arte" and "E lucevan le stelle." Reprinted from the authoritative full-score edition printed shortly after the opera’s premiere in 1900.

Customer Reviews:

Love the entire Black Dog Opera Library Series.......2003-08-22

Complete music on 2 cds, unabridged libretto, history of composer, the specific opera, historical performances...What else could you ask for for under $$$! AND you end up getting so much more out of the performance when you know the story to the music. You spend less time reading the sub-title screen and more time enjoying the performance. (Not to mention you can be a "smarty pants" and share the operas history with other patrons.)

I wish they had more than 14 operas in this collection. Also great for the opera collection is "The Book of 101 Opera Librettos" also by Black Dog.

Black Dog? Are you reading this? I want more

If you like Tosca, you'll love this book.......2000-12-25

The score in this book is perfect, it's a copy of an Ricordi Edition, if you are a conductor you can use it, don't confuise with the comment of the hardcover edition, the hardcover dosn't have the full score of the opera only this book. it's a good edition, if you like this opera buy this book.

Awful.......2000-10-14

This is one of my favorite operas but unfortunately this recording stinks. Scarpia probably had a hand in the engineering. While the performance is of high quality the dynamics are very poor. Whoever mixed it was playing the magic flute or intoxicated with the elixir of love. The quiet passages are recorded at such low levels that I have to increase the volume to hear them, but only to find myself forced to rush over to lower the drastically over amplified loud passages. As I have a much better recording (Caballe-Carreras-Wixell on Phillips) I end up looking at this book and playing the other. This was most disappointing since I also have the companion La Boheme and Butterfly and those are excellent. Save your money on this one.....

The perfect melding of music and drama........1998-09-25

It was once said that Puccini's "La Boheme" was all music and no drama, while "Tosca" was all drama and no music. Yet, at least to modern listeners, "Tosca," with its resonating themes, its incredible orchestrations, and its compelling story line of love, lust, loyalty, and betrayal continues to fascinate. The full score will aid the discerning listener in enjoying the scope of Puccini's genius as music and drama come together in a breathtaking rush of melody, aria, and incredible pathos. One of opera's most detestable, yet evilly engaging, villains, Baron Scarpia, stalks with regal ominousness. Floria Tosca sings one of the most poignant arias, "Visa d'arte. Visa amore." And as the plot thickens, the listener is carried to new heights of musical drama as the lovers plan their escape. But Scarpia's evil hand reaches from beyond the veil of death to thwart their flight to love and freedom. Puccini's orchestrations, his soaring melodies, and his sense of place and time have thrilled audiences for generations. Enjoy it again with the full score, and your favorite recording!

Turandot (Opera Classics Library Series)

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If this is all you want, this one will do as well as another
Mini-sized guide laden with maxi-helpful information

Turandot (Opera Classics Library Series)
Burton D. Fisher
Manufacturer: Opera Journeys Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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La Boheme in Full Score
Der Rosenkavalier in Full Score
Rigoletto: Full Score
Salome in Full Score
Carmen and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)

ASIN: 1930841507
Release Date: 2005-07-26

Product Description

A comprehensive guide to Puccini's TURANDOT, featuring insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis, and a complete, newly translated Libretto with Italian/English side-by side.

Customer Reviews:

If this is all you want, this one will do as well as another .......2007-03-16

The previous reviewer makes a very strong case for this series. In fact, he is so impressed by this series that he sings the praises no less than twenty-eight of "The Opera Journeys Mini Guides" here in Amazon--and, as I write this, offers comment on nothing else, on no other publication ... nothing. He is so taken with these "Mini Guides" that each and every one of his twenty-eight five-star reviews begins, "The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" [sic] of the opera, and extremely informative and educational." And every one of his twenty-eight reviews ends with "My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary."

How fortunate the gentleman is to have found a subject on which he can lay such honest, heartfelt and unstinting praise. And so often, too.

As for myself, I am not quite so enthusiastic. This "Mini Guide" to Puccini's "Turandot," and others of the series that have fallen into my hands from time to time, delivers pretty much what it says it will do. If you are actually willing to be satisfied with sio small a thing as a CliffsNotes approach to opera, these `Mini Guides" will serve as well as any--although the asking price strikes me as a bit steep.

However, I wish to suggest alternatives. First, haul yourself away from your computer. Then, and go out to see the opera.

If you don't have an opera company nearby, call up your local college, university or conservatory and ask what the opera workshop is doing. (Here in Vancouver, the student productions at the University of British Columbia for the past few years have consistently been better sung and better produced than those of the Vancouver Opera--and available for a vastly lower ticket cost.)

If no live performances are available in your area, then go ahead and invest in a DVD or a CD. Older performances of operas which in many cases can only be described as superb can be found on CD right here at Amazon for about the price of this pamphlet. The DVDs will cost you about the same as a single ticket in the cheapest seats in a professional opera house.

Actual performances will give you pleasure and enrich your soul in a way that these or any other such arid distillations and simulations cannot.

Mini-sized guide laden with maxi-helpful information.......2000-09-07

The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.

The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.

My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.

Book Description

The first detailed investigation of the reception and cultural contexts of Puccini’s music, this book offers a fresh view of this historically important but frequently overlooked composer. Wilson’s study explores the ways in which Puccini’s music and persona were held up as both the antidote to and the embodiment of the decadence widely felt to be afflicting late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Italy, a nation which although politically unified remained culturally divided. The book focuses upon two central, related questions which were debated throughout Puccini’s career: his status as a national or international composer, and his status as a traditionalist or modernist. In addition, Wilson examines how Puccini’s operas became caught up in a wide range of extra-musical controversies concerning such issues as gender and class. This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of both the history of opera and of the wider artistic and intellectual life of turn-of-the-century Italy.

Average customer rating:

A Great Score

La Boheme in Full Score
Giacomo Puccini
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486254771

Amazon.com

This is, unsurprisingly, one of the most-performed operas of all time, for its combination of story elements (boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, girl dies), beautiful melodies, and pure performability. The second act is only 19 minutes long, but it's amazingly complex--check it out in this full orchestral score, a reprint by Dover of an out-of-copyright publication. Bear in mind that there is no English translation, but most recordings will have a copy of the words in English anyway, so they're readily available.

Book Description

Authoritative Italian edition of one of the world's most beloved operas. Sturdy, attractive volume reprints every note of Puccini's masterpiece, based on Murger's novel, Scenes de la vie de Boheme. English translations of list of characters and instruments and the table of contents.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Score.......2002-02-06

Puccini's La Boheme is among his most perfored operas and this Dover addition full score is a great supplement to your enjoyment.

The print is large and easily readable. The score itself is durable and will lie flat on your desk or music stand with ease. The best part is that it is the most inexpensive copy of the score one can find.

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