An insightful, provocative selection of the best opera performances, chosen by The New York Times's chief classical music critic in one hundred original essays Opera intertwines the drama of the theater with the powerful emotionality of music. In this magical and illuminating guide to the best opera recordings, Anthony Tommasini delves into the ways story and music interweave to create the subtle but telling moments that move us. Tommasini brings to life the rich history of opera performance and the singers and conductors who, over the past century, have come to own the music. He chooses masterworks, such as Arturo Toscanini's La Boheme, captured for posterity fifty years after he conducted the opera's 1896 premiere for Puccini, and Leontyne Price's Leonora in Il Trovatore, an encapsulation of the ideal Verdi soprano. For aficionados and newcomers alike, Tommasini is the perfect guide to the passions and playfulness of the opera.
Profiles one hundred top cinematic works available on DVD or video that are recommended for children, pairing each with a brief original essay that covers their aesthetic value as well as historical and cultural information.
Kozinn's essays on the most dazzling recordings available provide both practical guidance for building a library and insight into the transcendent power of classical music."--BOOK JACKET.
"Keats's sparse collage illustrations capture the wonder and beauty a snowy day can bring to a small child."—Barnes & Noble "Ezra Jack Keats's classic The Snowy Day, winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal, pays homage to the wonder and pure ...
The chief classical music critic of "The New York Times" explores the concept of greatness in relation to composers, considering elements of biography, influence, and shifting attitudes toward a composer's work over time.
Just as the efforts of Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland spurred the revival of bel canto opera, conductors have been a vital link to formerly neglected repertory. Callas elevated the status of bel canto music when she demonstrated how ...
Recorded with Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke — which is to say , the man who invented bebop piano and the man who invented bebop drums — Gordon makes what might be the last of the real - thing , nonnostalgic bebop records .
Martin Mayer writes that "for the past century the story of opera worldwide has been inseparable from the story of the Met." And never before has the story of the...
Lois had been afflicted by polio and was terribly nervous about being on the stage . All the cast were wonderful to Lois . The procedure was that she would come across the street to the theater and the carry her up the stairs into the ...
It concentrates on the stories & text of opera, that perhaps have more relevence today in a growing literature than it had when it was the "sacrilegious" pioneering work.
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice In the vein of Graham Greene and John le Carré, The Matchmaker delivers a chilling Cold War spy story set in West Berlin, where an American woman targeted by the Stasi must confront the truth ...