The Limelight Book Of Opera

Biographical sketches of the composers and critical interpretations of their productions accompany these summaries of eighty-seven famous operas

Limelight is a unique collection of slam poetry paired with inspirational writing techniques. With over 30 original poems in different forms, Raphael's work tackles current social concerns for his generation, such as sustainability and social equality, all while amplifying his uplifting message of hope. Solli’s book also contains 5 chapters on how to write and read poetry, how to manage stage fright and writer’s block, and encouraging tips on how we can all make tomorrow better than today. As a voice of his generation, and at a time when youth movements worldwide hold much importance, Raphael is taking on the world...one word at a time. The future needs you and me to create equality across all levels of humanity -Solli

This collection of original essays ranges widely among the composer's interests and achievements: from his religious views to his skill as a cook, from the politics that galvanized him to the poetry that inspired him, from his earliest compositions to his final masterwork, Falstaff, completed at the age of 80. Drawing on original research and scholarship, this book also contains two of Verdi's early works, never before published in this form; a translated collection of his letters, also heretofore unpublished; the text of the Requiem with indications of Verdi's emphases; and a directory of his operas with sources, casts, theatres, and premiere dates.

Cover story- Tan Dun's Organic Trilogy. The world-renowned Chinese/American artist returns to Australia to conduct his own organic music concerti - Water, Paper and Earth - for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He explains how the trilogy, which uses everything from bowls to paper to stone instruments, draws on the natural sounds he heard while growing up in Hunan. Feature- Rolling Stone. Simon Stone began making waves in Australia. Now based in London, he is one of the most acclaimed opera and theatre directors in the world, with shattering productions of Yerma, Medea and Kaija Saariaho's Innocence to his name. This month he directs a new Lucia di Lammermoor for The Metropolitan Opera. We catch up on his brilliant career. Article- Erin Helyard, Artistic Director of Pinchgut Opera, shares his insights into The Spiritual Forest, the last collection of Monteverdi's music published in his lifetime, as Pinchgut performs the sublime liturgical works in concert. Interview- Australian composer Elliott Gyger tells us about his new Concerto for Orchestra as the West Australian Symphony Orchestra prepares to perform the world premiere. Soundings- Check out our popular monthly columns including On the Record, Clive Paget's round-up of the best new recordings; Cutting Edge about the latest in new music; Guy Noble's reliably amusing, provocative Soapbox; and Sacred Cow in which a guest writer vents, humorously, about something that bugs them in arts and culture. Reviews- Our experienced critics appraise the latest concerts, operas and plays around the country. On Air and Online- We preview livestreams, cinema screenings, digital events and radio highlights to check out this autumn.

(Limelight). This first-of-its-kind, highly entertaining, and carefully researched account reveals how nearly 200 operas by leading composers and librettists have portrayed the major events and personalities of more than 2000 years of history. In a continuous and absorbing narrative, the book sweeps from Roman times to 1820, with a cast of characters that includes Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Attila, Charlemagne, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Napoleon and hundreds more. All are seen as the figures historians generally perceive them to have been and as their on-stage counterparts, created and re-imagined by some of opera's greatest artists.

In his first book since the enormously popular Great Singers on Great Singing, the distinguished Metropolitan Opera basso Jerome Hines here provides a wealth of new information and advice for all those who have embarked on - or plan to embark on - a serious singing career. From basic information on how the head and body combine to produce vocal sound, he goes on to analyze the "four voices" encompassed by the singer's one voice, always explaining how through proper technique and training that voice can achieve its ultimate in power, grace and beauty. On another level, Mr. Hines guides the singer through the labyrinth of choosing the right teacher, shows how physical and emotional health and care of the body relate to the vocal apparatus and considers such diverse matters as stage fright, dealing with conductors and managers and that final challenge - facing the critics.

Opera is the only guide to the research writings on all aspects of opera. This second edition presents 2,833 titles--over 2,000 more than the first edition--of books, parts of books, articles and dissertations with full bibliographic descriptions and critical annotations. Users will find the core literature on the operas of 320 individual composers and details of operatic life in 43 countries. All relevant works through to November 1999 have been considered, covering more than fifteen years of literature since the first edition was published.

Just twenty-six when the electrifying premiere of his Cavalleria Rusticana at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome catapulted the impoverished musician into sudden fame and fortune, Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) went on to write fifteen more operas, including L'Amico Fritz, Guglielmo Ratcliff, Iris, Parisina, and Il Piccolo Marat. With privileged access to extensive primary sources, including Mascagni's 4,200 letters to Anna Lolli, his mistress for more than three decades, author Alan Mallach provides a compelling portrait of a flamboyant, combative, and emotional man who was passionately devoted to the Italian opera tradition and committed to innovation in musical language and dramatic form. Deftly combining serious biography with critical commentary, Mallach begins with the captivating story of Mascagni's rags-to-riches adventure, from his birth in Livorno in Tuscany, to his musical studies first with Alfredo Soffredini and later at the Milan Conservatory, to his years as a vagabond musician, to the worldwide success of his breakthrough opera. He then traces Mascagni's private and professional life after Cavalleria, examining a prolific yet controversial career that was forever overshadowed by the work that unexpectedly thrust him into the limelight. Mallach provides a full analysis of Mascagni's oeuvre and discusses his complex relationships with such Italian cultural and political figures as Edoardo Sonzogno, Giacomo Puccini, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Luigi Illica, and Benito Mussolini. He also thoroughly chronicles Mascagni's bouts with manic depression, his marriage to Lina and devotion to their three children, his grueling schedule of concert and operatic tours, his patriotism and bitter opposition to Italy's involvement in both world wars, and his passionate love affair with Anna Lolli. This richly textured biography will appeal to fans of the still beloved and popular Cavalleria, and it will introduce opera enthusiasts to the power, intensity, and melodic beauty of the brilliant composer's many other significant works.