Romance, murder, and revenge — Mozart's masterpiece offers an ingenious blend of comic and tragic elements in recounting the adventures of a dashing libertine. Reproduced from an authoritative early edition.

Romance, murder, and revenge "Don Giovanni" offers an ingenious blend of comic and tragic elements in recounting the adventures of a dashing libertine whose trail of seductions and abandonments leads (literally!) to hell. Mozart's masterpiece, a product of his inspired collaboration with poet Lorenzo da Ponte, premiered to public and critical acclaim in 1787. Since then, every great opera singer has assayed one or another of its leading roles, and audiences around the world have delighted in its charms. This addition to Dover's series of vocal scores for the world's most popular operas contains the complete music for voice with a piano reduction of the orchestral part. Handsome and inexpensive, it features large pages and clear type for easy reading. Reproduced from an authoritative edition, and including an English-language version of the libretto, this edition of "Don Giovanni" will prove an indispensable, practical aid for soloists, chorus members, and rehearsal pianists. "

Popular for more than two decades among college voice teachers and their students, this outstanding, authoritative vocal pedagogy text is an invaluable manual. It thoroughly examines the vocal problems prospective voice teachers will encounter daily in the teaching studio and choral rehearsal. The author’s approach is a unique one, based in large part on diagnostic procedures similar to those used by doctors. As each vocal fault is presented, its identifying characteristics or symptoms are stated, its possible causes are discussed, and corrective procedures are suggested. An especially valuable feature is the book’s accompanying audio files (available here for download) that contains 14 male and female voice samples of the various vocal faults discussed in the text, enabling students to better identify basic characteristic sounds associated with each fault. Current and prospective choir directors and voice teachers who need help in improving the vocal sounds of choir members or students will find this practical guide-book to be an ever-present help in time of trouble.

Wye Jamison Allanbrook’s widely influential Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart challenges the view that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music was a “pure play” of key and theme, more abstract than that of his predecessors. Allanbrook’s innovative work shows that Mozart used a vocabulary of symbolic gestures and musical rhythms to reveal the nature of his characters and their interrelations. The dance rhythms and meters that pervade his operas conveyed very specific meanings to the audiences of the day.

John Wells introduces the opera with a high-spirited account of the action-packed career of the author, in many respects the prototype of Figaro himself. Basil Deane explores the score: he shows that Mozart's characters are illuminated here not so much in soliloquies but in their reactions to each other. Composer Stephen Oliver discusses how the comedy exists not just in the words but, essentially, in the music. The full Italian text is given, with a note on the order of scenes in Act Three and the alternative passages Mozart wrote for the 1789 revival. The classic translation of E.J. Dent is an excellent way to get to know the twists and turns of the plot and the stylish wit of da Ponte's innuendos.Contents: A Society Marriage, John Wells; A Musical Commentary, Basil Deane; Music and Comedy in 'The Marriage of Figaro, Stephen Oliver; Beaumarchais's Characters; Le nozze di Figaro: Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte; The Marriage of Figaro: English version by Edward J. Dent