"The Story of Opera explores the centuries-old tradition of opera through the stories it tells -- from ancient myths and medieval quest legends to tales of predatory nobles and young lovers, the struggles of the poor, interractial relationships, and ordinary people caught up in great events. The stories reflect human issues that were important to audiences at the time and, through the emotional power of music, still resonate today. Offstage as well as on, each aspect of the operatic experience...has its own fascinating story, told here and illustrated in a stunning four-color design. Two hundred beautiful images show not only remarkable productions but also how an opera was understood when it was created." -- Back cover.

An illustrated retelling of the plots of fifteen well-known operas.

The Metropolitan has stood among the grandest of opera companies since its birth in 1883. Tracing the offstage/onstage workings of this famed New York institution, Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron tell how the Met became and remains a powerful actor on the global cultural scene. In this first new history of the company in thirty years, each of the chronologically sequenced chapters surveys a composer or a slice of the repertoire and brings to life dominant personalities and memorable performances of the time. From the opening night Faust to the recent controversial production of Wagner’s "Ring," Grand Opera is a remarkable account of management and audience response to the push and pull of tradition and reinvention. Spanning the decades between the Gilded Age and the age of new media, this story of the Met concludes by tipping its hat to the hugely successful "Live in HD" simulcasts and other twenty-first-century innovations. Grand Opera’s appeal extends far beyond the large circle of opera enthusiasts. Drawing on unpublished documents from the Metropolitan Opera Archives, reviews, recordings, and much more, this richly detailed book looks at the Met in the broad context of national and international issues and events.

The author's rewriting of opera stories from seven different composers combined with illustrations and a select discography, introduces to children some of the great operatic themes of the last 200 years.

Capture the excitement of a night at the opera with this stunning collection of eight favorite opera stories, each illustrated by a different artist.The Magic FluteAidaCarmenThe Cunning Little VixenTurandotCinderellaHansel & GretelThe Love for Three Oranges

From classic films like Carmen Jones to contemporary works like The Diary of Sally Hemings and U-Carmen eKhayelitsa, American and South African artists and composers have used opera to reclaim black people's place in history. Naomi André draws on the experiences of performers and audiences to explore this music's resonance with today's listeners. Interacting with creators and performers, as well as with the works themselves, André reveals how black opera unearths suppressed truths. These truths provoke complex, if uncomfortable, reconsideration of racial, gender, sexual, and other oppressive ideologies. Opera, in turn, operates as a cultural and political force that employs an immense, transformative power to represent or even liberate. Viewing opera as a fertile site for critical inquiry, political activism, and social change, Black Opera lays the foundation for innovative new approaches to applied scholarship.

When the opera diva Madame SoSo gets laryngitis, her singing cat Alma fills in for her.