SINGING OPERA, SPEAKING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND SOLVING MURDERS Its all in a days work for Myra Barnett, relocated American to the Frankfurt Opera where she has started her first contract singing in the chorus. MURDER FOUL OR? A colleague is mysteriously killed in an onstage accident which she is determined to prove was murder. Can she convince the stiff German Inspektor that this was the case? And how can she find evidence to convince him? THE PLOT DEVELOPS Going through her colleagues belongings, she finds there were many secrets in his past that she was unaware of especially an earlier romance in another land. Intriguing. DAMN THAT WOMAN I am going to have to do something to stop that meddling woman who is trying to prove he was really murdered. She may have to have an accident too.

OPERN SINGEN, EINE FREMDSPRACHE SPRECHEN UND MORDE AUFKLÄREN Das ist alltägliche Arbeit für Myra Barnett, eine Amerikanerin an der Frankfurter Oper, an der sie ihren ersten Vertrag als Chorsängerin hat. MORD ODER FOUL PLAY? Eine Kollege kommt auf mysteriöse Weise ums Leben bei einem „Unfall“ auf der Bühne, und sie ist fest entschlossen zu beweisen, dass es Mord war. Kann sie den steifen deutschen Inspektor davon überzeugen, dass es so war? Und wie kann sie Beweise finden, um ihn zu überzeugen? DIE HANDLUNG ENTWICKELT SICH Als sie die Besitztümer ihres Kollegen durchsieht, stößt sie auf viele Geheimnisse aus seiner Vergangenheit, die sie noch nicht kannte, vor allem eine frühere Liebesgeschichte in einem anderen Land. Faszinierend. VERDAMMT SEI DIESE FRAU Ich muss etwas tun, um diese Frau zu stoppen, die sich in alles einmischt und versucht zu beweisen, dass er tatsächlich ermordet wurde. Vielleicht sollte sie auch einen Unfall haben.

In Murder in Manchuria, Scott D. Seligman explores an unsolved murder set amid the chaos that reigned in China in the run-up to World War II. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a three-country struggle for control of Manchuria—an area some called China’s “Wild East”—and an explosive mixture of nationalities, religions, and ideologies. Semyon Kaspé, a young Jewish musician, is kidnapped, tortured, and ultimately murdered by disaffected, antisemitic White Russians, secretly acting on the orders of Japanese military overlords who covet his father’s wealth. When local authorities deliberately slow-walk the search for the kidnappers, a young French diplomat takes over and launches his own investigation. Part cold-case thriller and part social history, the true, tragic saga of Kaspé is told in the context of the larger, improbable story of the lives of the twenty thousand Jews who called Harbin home at the beginning of the twentieth century. Scott D. Seligman recounts the events that led to their arrival and their hasty exodus—and solves a crime that has puzzled historians for decades.

An aspect of dying in opera, rarely observed or commented on, is Sudden Unexpected Death. There are many deaths in this melodramatic genre: most follow expected causes like murder, suicide, or old age. This book explores those deaths which occur without obvious natural causes. These are often central to the overall drama of the opera, representing denouements forming the epiphany of the story and the apotheosis for the audience. The book identifies 50 operas where such events occur, exploring the role of the dramatis personae, the circumstances of their dying, and specific themes that emerge. These include a preponderance of females, especially in the 19th century, who die mainly at the end of the operas, often in the context of tragedy. It charts the growing awareness in the medical sciences of the unconscious forces driving human behaviour, including liminal mental states and trances, which influenced these operas and continue to affect human behaviour to the present day. In addition, the changing philosophies that are intertwined with operatic narratives, in particular stemming from Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, are important in the book’s exegesis, as is the special role of Wagner’s compositions. This leads to the exploration of recurrent concepts such as the Liebestod, the ewig Weibliche and redemption itself.

Sir Stafford Nye's flight home from Malaya takes an unprecedented twist when a young woman confides in him that someone is trying to kill her. In a moment of weakness, he agrees to lend her his passport. Unwittingly, the diplomat has put his own life on the line.

A group of men dig a tunnel under the threshold of a house. Then they go and fetch a heavy, sagging object from inside the house, pull it out through the tunnel, and put it on a cow-hide to be dragged off and thrown into the offal-pit. Why should the corpse of a suicide – for that is what it is– have earned this unusual treatment? In The Curse on Self-Murder, the second volume of his three-part Suicide in the Middle Ages, Alexander Murray explores the origin of the condemnation of suicide, in a quest which leads along the most unexpected byways of medieval theology, law, mythology, and folklore –and, indeed, in some instances beyond them. At an epoch when there might be plenty of ostensible reasons for not wanting to live, the ways used to block the suicidal escape route give a unique perspective on medieval religion.

The compelling biography of the violinist who founded the Palestine Symphony Orchestra and saved hundreds of people from Hitler--as seen in Josh Aronson's documentary Orchestra of Exiles. "The true artist does not create art as an end in itself. He creates art for human beings. Humanity is the goal."--Bronislaw Huberman At fourteen, Bronislaw Huberman played the Brahms Violin Concerto in Vienna-- winning high praise from the composer himself, who was there. Instantly famous, Huberman began touring all over the world and received invitations to play for royalty across Europe. But after witnessing the tragedy of World War I, he committed his phenomenal talent and celebrity to aid humanity. After studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, Huberman joined the ranks of Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein in calling for peace through the Pan European Movement. But when hope for their noble vision was destroyed by the rise of Nazism, Huberman began a crusade that would become his greatest legacy--the creation, in 1936, of the Palestine Symphony, which twelve years later became the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In creating this world-level orchestra, Huberman miraculously arranged for the very best Jewish musicians and their families to emigrate from Nazi-threatened territories. His tireless campaigning for the project--including a marathon fundraising concert tour across America--ultimately saved nearly a thousand Jews from the approaching Holocaust. Inviting the great Arturo Toscanini to conduct the orchestra's first concert, Huberman's clarion call of art over cruelty was heard around the world. His story contains estraordinary adventures, riches and royalty, politicians and broken promises, losses and triumphs. Against near impossible obstacles, Huberman refused to give up on his dream to create a unique and life-saving orchestra of exiles which was one of the great cultural achievements of the 20th century. Includes Photographs