There's a reason La Boh me has been staged at the Met more often than any other opera: Puccini's enticing music perfectly conveys the enchantment of new young love and the anguish that comes with loss and death. La Boh me, the passionate and timeless story of love among impoverished young artists in Paris, can stake its claim as the world's most popular opera. It has a marvelous ability to make a powerful first impression (even on those new to opera) and to reveal unexpected treasures after dozens of hearings. At first glance, La Boh me is the definitive depiction of the joys and sorrows of love and loss; on closer inspection, it reveals the deep emotional significance hidden in the trivial things (a bonnet, an old overcoat, a chance meeting with a neighbor) that make up our everyday lives. This touching story of tenderness and tragedy never fails to move audiences and melt hearts. This gorgeous souvenir libretto includes extensive background notes and photos from productions through the years.

Everything you could possibly know about Verdi and his operas, from the brilliant and humorous author of Wagner Without Fear.

'The Chronicle of Opera' celebrates four centuries of music and performance, mixing facts and anecdotes, personalities and stylistic development with hundreds of illustrations.

Illustrated with hundreds of photographs and based on research in the Met's massive archives, this history chronicles and celebrates the Met's first one hundred years and the legendary stars and conductors who have performed there

In "The Ring And The Wolf", Gottfried Wagner chronicles his family's connection with National Socialism, from his great-grandfather's anti-Semitic pamphlets to his father's, uncle's and grandparent's close relationship with Adolf Hitler.

Gottfried's grandmother, Winifred, formed a special closeness to Hitler. It was Winifred who reportedly supplied the paper on which Hitler wrote Mein Kampf. Her two sons, Wieland and Wolfgang (Gottfried's father), called Hitler "Uncle Wolf".

As a young child, Gottfried discovered his family's controversial past, which has lead him on an impassioned crusade as an adult to examine the hatred and prejudice he knew growing up in Bayreuth -- a cultural and political center of German society led by the Wagner family with their annual festival in honor of Richard Wagner's operas.

With a judicious eye for telling detail and a sweeping sense of conscience, Gottfried Wagner lays bare the sins of a most powerful family.

Includes letters written by Verdi and his acquaintances that illuminate the personal side of the innkeeper's son turned successful composer

Opera is the fastest growing of all the performing arts, attracting audiences of all ages who are enthralled by the gorgeous music, vivid drama, and magnificent production values. If you've decided that the time has finally come to learn about opera and discover for yourself what it is about opera that sends your normally reserved friends into states of ecstatic abandon, this is the book for you. Opera 101 is recognized as the standard text in English for anyone who wants to become an opera lover--a clear, friendly, and truly complete handbook to learning how to listen to opera, whether on the radio, on recordings, or live at the opera house. Fred Plotkin, an internationally respected writer and teacher about opera who for many years was performance manager of the Metropolitan Opera, introduces the reader (whatever his or her level of musical knowledge) to all the elements that make up opera, including:

• A brief, entertaining history of opera;
• An explanation of key operatic concepts, from vocal types to musical conventions;
• Hints on the best way to approach the first opera you attend and how to best understand what is happening both offstage and on;
• Lists of recommended books and recordings, and the most complete traveler's guide to opera houses around the world.