Opera 101 A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera

by Plotkin, Fred; Domingo, Placido

• ISBN13: 9780786880256
• ISBN10: 0786880252
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-12-01
• Publisher: Hachette Books

Summary

Written by an opera insider and featuring an introduction by Placido Domingo, here is a thorough, friendly, and truly complete guide to learning how to love and appreciate the opera. After a brief history of opera, the book includes a guide to operatic terms, a minute-by-minute listener's guide to 11 central works, a list of recommended books and recordings and much more.

Author Biography

Fred Plotkin is the author of the bestselling and acclaimed Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera, which is the standard text in North American for discovering the glories of opera. He writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Opera News, Das Opernglas, and Gourmet.

He lectures on music for leading institutions, including Columbia University, the Juilliard School, and the Smithsonian. Plotkin is a popular guest on the intermission features of the Chevron Texaco-Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, and many shows on National Public Radio. An expert on Italy, he has written five definitive books on Italian food and wine.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Placido Domingo
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
400 Years of Opera	3	(94)
Becoming an Opera Cognoscente	97	(61)
Going to the Opera	158	(30)
Discography for Opera 101	184	(4)
Rigoletto: Learning Your First Opera	188	(19)
Tosca: Opera as Drama	207	(14)
Lucia di Lammermoor: Drama Expressed Through Music	221	(15)
Il Barbiere di Siviglia: Opera and Comedy	236	(20)
Don Giovanni: Classical Opera	256	(25)
Les Contes d'Hoffmann: French Opera	281	(15)
Eugene Onegin: Romantic Opera	296	(16)
Don Carlo: Grand Opera	312	(25)
Tannhauser: Opera and Ideas	337	(27)
Die Walkure: Epic Opera	364	(20)
Elektra: Psychological Opera	384	(11)
Opera and You: A Lifelong Love Affair	395	(4)
Appendix A Suggested Reading About Opera	399	(6)
Appendix B Opera Discography and Videography: Recommended Performances	405	(10)
Appendix C Opera Houses Around the World: A Complete List for the Traveler	415	(73)
Index	488