An autobiography charting Marjorie Wright's career in opera. At the height of her career, Marjorie Wright bathed in the limelight of the operatic circle, as a renowned opera diva. Then her world fell apart. The 'politics' and back-stabbing in this operatic circle finally saw her falling from grace, to the lowest ebb one could imagine.

Derry~Londonderry has a distinctive cultural history which reflects its unique position in the history of Ireland. This ground-breaking book examines three centuries of music and theatre in the city highlighting the key figures and turning points in its cultural life. It documents the rich diversity of drama and concerts played out in the city's theatres and concert halls, from the birth of playwright George Farquhar in 1677 to performances by the Field Day Theatre Company and the cultural revival of the 1990s and beyond.

Big dreams, dashed hopes and romance are at the heart of this biography of Norma and George Pocaterra. The story begins in 1903 when George Pocaterra left Italy and came to the Canadian Rockies with hopes of striking it rich. George is best known for establishing the Buffalo Head Ranch in the foothills of Alberta. He developed a close friendship with members of the Stoney Indians, and was one of the first non-Natives to explore much of what is now called Kananaskis Country. In 1933, he returned to Italy, where he met and fell in love with Norma Piper, a young Calgary singer who had moved to Italy to study opera. They eventually married, and George took over the management of Norma's rising operatic career. World War II forced a return to Canada in 1939. In Calgary, Norma became part of the local music scene, giving concerts and teaching singing at Mount Royal College. In 1955, she started her own studio and over the next 25 years became one of Calgary's most loved music teachers. George, meanwhile, continued with his coal-mining ventures, although he suffered bitter disappointments. Drawing on personal diaries and correspondence, the authors have created an intimate portrait of these remarkable Albertans who became, each in their own way, legends in their lifetimes.

Ever since 1821, when he died at age fifty-one on the forlorn and windswept island of St. Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte has been remembered as either demi-god or devil incarnate. In The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, the first volume of a two-volume cradle-to-grave biography, Robert Asprey instead treats him as a human being. Asprey tells this fascinating, tragic tale in lush narrative detail. The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte is an exciting, reckless thrill ride as Asprey charts Napoleon's vertiginous ascent to fame and the height of power. Here is Napoleon as he was-not saint, not sinner, but a man dedicated to and ultimately devoured by his vision of himself, his empire, and his world.

The Rise of the Diva on the Sixteenth-Century Commedia dell’Arte Stage examines the emergence of the professional actress from the 1560s onwards in Italy. Tracing the historical progress of actresses from their earliest appearances as sideshow attractions to revered divas, Rosalind Kerr explores the ways in which actresses commodified their sexual and cultural appeal. Newly translated archival material, iconographic evidence, literary texts, and theatrical scripts provide a rich repertoire through which Kerr demonstrates how actresses skillfully improvised roles such as the maidservant, the prima donna, and the transvestite heroine. Following the careers of early stars such as Flaminia of Rome, Vincenza Armani, Vittoria Piissimi, and Isabella Andreini, Kerr shows how their fame arose from the combination of dazzling technical mastery and eloquent powers of persuasion. Seamlessly integrating the Italian and English scholarly literature on the subject, The Rise of the Diva is an insightful analysis of one of the modern world’s first celebrity cultures.

The Diva's Gift traces the far-reaching impact of the first female stars on the playwrights and players of the all-male stage. When Shakespeare entered the scene, women had been acting in Italian troupes for two decades, traveling in Italy and beyond and performing in all genres, including tragedy. The ambitious actress reinvented the innamorata, making her more charismatic and autonomous, thrilling audiences with her skills. Despite fervent attacks, some actresses became the first international stars, winning royal and noble patrons and literary admirers in France and Spain. After Elizabeth and her court caught wind of their success in Paris, Italian troupes with actresses crossed the Channel to perform. The Italians' repeat visits and growing fame posed a radical challenge to English professionals just as they were building their first paying theaters. Some writers treated the actress as a whorish threat to their stage, which had long minimized female roles. Others saw a vital new model full of promise. Lyly, Marlowe, and Kyd endowed innamorata parts with hot-blooded, racialized passions, but made them self-aware agents, not counters traded between men. Shakespeare, Jonson, Webster and others followed, ringing changes on the new type in comedy, tragedy, and romance. Like the comici they recycled actress-linked theatergrams and star scenes, such as cross-dressing, the mad scene, and the sung lament. In this way, the diva's prodigious virtuosity and stardom altered the horizons of playmaking even on the womanless stage. Capitalizing on the talents of boy players, the best playwrights created bold new roles endowed with her alien glamour, such as Lyly's Sapho and Pandora, Marlowe's Dido, Kyd's Bel-Imperia, Webster's Vittoria, and Shakespeare's Beatrice, Viola, Portia, Juliet, and Ophelia. Cleopatra is not alone in her superb theatricality and dazzling strangeness. As this book demonstrates, the diva's gifts mark them all.

Opera singer Marta Hendricks discovers she has an mysterious admirer who leaves her roses. But it turns out this fan is a actually a stalker with deadly intentions.