The two ballets in this volume, Paquita and Nuit et Jour, represent Ludwig Minkus (1826–1917) towards the end of his career in Russia, working at the peak of his creative powers. They are respectively the thirteenth and fourteenth collaborations between the Viennese composer and the famous choreographer of the Russian classical ballet, Marius Petipa (1819–1910). The Grand Pas, written for Petipa's revival of Deldevez’s Paquita in St Petersburg in 1881, is well-known and loved, a jewel of the classical ballet repertoire in its own right. As an independent, abstract divertissement, the Grand Pas has remained popular with ballet companies and their audiences all over the world, but had not been seen outside Russia in its original context (as the climax of the concluding celebrations) before Pierre Lacotte's sensitive re-creation of the 1846 ballet in its entirety at the Paris Opéra in 2001. The Grand Pas was designed for ballerina, premier danseur, six premières danseuses and eight second soloists. Over the years, this Spanish flavoured piece has become a kind of miniature gala performance, with an array of solo variations that are particularly interesting not only for their choreography but also their occasional obbligato writing. Minkus had a talent in composing for the violin, his own special instrument—as can be seen in the sumptuous, extended adagio. His ballets also contain effective virtuoso pieces for the flute, harp, cello and cornet. The violin and harp solos were written with the talents of the famous violinist Leopold Auer and harpist Albert Zabel in mind, both of whom served as instrumental leaders in the St Petersburg theatre orchestras in the late 19th century. The contemporary manuscript piano arrangements reproduced here, repetiteur scores from the Soviet era, present a longer and a shorter version of the Grand Pas. They reflect the performing edition as it has variously evolved over the 130 years of its independent stage life on the Russian stages, and—through the agency of Anna Pavlova’s travelling company in the 1920s—as also adapted by ballet companies across the world. The less familiar Nuit et Jour was created by Petipa and Minkus to mark the accession to the throne of Tsar Alexander III in 1883. It is an interesting development of the popular contemporary genre of abstract allegorical works, illustrating the movement of time through the day and the seasons of the year. The ballet depicts the innate beauties of both night and day (created by the great ballerinas Yevgeniya Sokolova and Yekaterina Vazem respectively), the daily struggle between darkness and light, and climaxes in an achievement of harmony in a dance of the nations. This is given a patriotic resonance by reflecting ten national types from the Russian Empire in a tour de force, testing the composer’s skill in capturing the various national styles: Uzbek, Tartar, Siberian, Finnish, Cossack, Belarusian, Polish, Caucasian, and Ukrainian. The score reproduced here is the piano version published in both Hamburg and St Petersburg about 1885.

This book takes a pedagogical approach that is participative and interactive, involving the case study method of learning. Chapters start with an Indian case study of a well known company. This is used as a capstone case for the chapter. The student will find this an easy learning experience as data and additional information for these enterprises is readily available. The selection of such cases makes classroom learning truly suited to the Indian business environment.The value driven approach to Operations Management is used in structuring the text into three modules. The first module discusses the infrastructure function of Operations Management. Infrastructure function is considered to be product, process, capacity and location. Module Two describes the structure of the operations function. This includes quality and other product transformation processes. Module Three focuses on the organization, people and processes i.e. the job, the work, and the workplace. In addition, most of the mathematical techniques have been separated into supplements attached to the relevant chapters. Software solutions for the techniques have been explained in the text. Every mathematical technique is exemplified with a number of solved problems. Unlike many Production and Operations Management texts, this book covers E-commerce, Industrial Safety, Maintenance, Environmental Management (Green Productivity) and new technological trends in the discipline. These sections should add to the significance of exploring how firms can gain competitive advantage and promote sustainable development at the same time. The last section of the book comprises of a selection of cases from The Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad. The cases encompass the entire spectrum of Indian Industry the private and the public sectors, professional and family managed business organizations, service and manufacturing industries, single industry and conglomerates. The cases relate to Operations Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Capacity Planning, New Products, Manufacturing Technologies, etc. The Case Studies are of world class. Prof. Tirupati, one of the authors of the case studies, according to Management Science, has penned one of the top 100 management articles in the 50 years.The book is comprehensive, lucid and easy to read and understand. It should be of great value both to students and faculty.