One of Verdi's most popular opera, La Traviata is based on La Dame aux Cam lias (Camille), the novel and play by Alexandre Dumas, fils that enthralled Parisian audiences of the 1850s with a stirring portrayal of a beautiful courtesan redeemed by love. With his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, Verdi transformed the Dumas story of a passionate, ultimately poignant love affair within the intoxicating demimonde of Paris in the mid-1800s to an exciting, deeply moving musical drama.
La Traviata fortunately survived its dismal first production in Venice in 1853 to become a worldwide favorite, treasured by musical artists and audiences alike for the lyric beauty of its arias and ensembles, and for the dramatic force and finesse of its orchestral scoring. This full-score edition, designed to provide a lifetime of study and enjoyment, is reproduced from the authoritative edition prepared for G. Ricordi of Milan. It will afford opera lovers a rare opportunity to study intimately Verdi's genius for operatic composition in the early years of its greatest flowering.

In this "rousing book that salutes the passion, the joy, and the pleasures of singing, music, and practice" (Spirituality and Health), Joan Oliver Goldsmith celebrates America's over 20 million singers and "teaches us that...to pursue a creative passion is a true act of love" (New Age). She guides us not only behind the scenes of choirs and ensembles but inside the making and hearing of harmonious sound. "Her words soar, growl, cry and whisper. And they inspire" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). As Goldsmith shares wisdom about finding one's voice, making mistakes, teaching, friendship, and the essential elements of creativity, "you'll learn that] much of what she's learned from music is applicable to almost any life" (Minneapolis Star Tribune). "'Singing for your life' is what Goldsmith's book is all about. Read it and sing " Bobby McFerrin

Mohr's humor and personal perspective on the lives of Rubinstein, Horowitz, and other artists mix music lore with quiet faith.

The author recounts the development of his interest in opera and musicals, and discusses the connection between sexuality and music

From Mozart's fabulous legato that "flowed like oil" to Beethoven's oceanlike surge, from Clara Schumann's touch "sharp as a pencil sketch" to Rubinstein's volcanic and sensual playing, The Great Pianists brings to life the brilliant, stylish, and sometimes eccentric personalities, methods, and technical peculiarities of history's greatest pianists.

"All I have to say about these songs is that I love them, and want to sing along to them, and force other people to listen to them, and get cross when these other people don't like them as much as I do." --Nick Hornby, from Songbook

A wise and hilarious collection from the bestselling author of Funny Girl, About a Boy, and High Fidelity.

Songs, songwriters, and why and how they get under our skin...

Songbook is Nick Hornby's labor of love. A shrewd, funny, and completely unique collection of musings on pop music, why it's good, what makes us listen and love it, and the ways in which it attaches itself to our lives--all with the beat of a perfectly mastered mix tape.

Plot and counterplot lie at the heart of Don Giovanni, Cos fan tutte, and The Marriage of Figaro, the three brilliant libretti that Lorenzo Da Ponte prepared for Mozart. They were also central to Da Ponte's own extraordinary life. His Memoirs record a fantastic variety of romantic, political, and professional intrigues, and tell of meetings with a host of remarkable men. In a life that took him from the canals of Venice to the streets of New York, Da Ponte was at different times priest, professional gambler, proprietor of a bordello, political agitator, court poet, impresario, grocery store owner, and the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia University. His Memoirs, a minor classic of Italian literature, are the picaresque and engrossing story of a man of enormous talent and unsurpassed flair who was, above all, an indefatigable survivor.

The plays of Shakespeare inspired Verdi's deepest resources. Macbeth (1847) was one of the composer's earliest operatic-dramatic triumphs and Otello (1887) was among his latest. At the end of his life Verdi astonished a public accustomed to his tragic fervor with Falstaff, a gem of pure comedy.
Verdi's last great work premiered in the composer's 80th year. This reproduction of the complete and unabridged score brings the final proof of the maestro's universality to the many students, musicians, and opera lovers who would see for themselves the summation of Verdi's brilliant orchestral and compositional powers. Ricordi was Verdi's original publisher; this reprint of his edition contains the standard, definitive score and includes English translations of the original front matter. Falstaff benefits from Verdi's understanding of Wagner and other operatic innovators. Nevertheless, between its concise but forceful orchestration and its copious melodic invention, it remains singularly Verdian. Its wit astonishes as much today as it did in 1893.

In this extensively researched ode to scandal, Peter Blecha recounts the travails of musicians who have dared to air "unacceptable" topics. Filled with several centuries' worth of raunchy sex ditties, morbid murder ballads, satanic songs, paeans to intoxication and radical political anthems, this book lays the censors' stories bare, and casts a much-needed spotlight on civil liberties and artistic freedom in our post-9/11 world. Highlights the work of hundreds of controversial musicians, including: the Beatles, Ray Charles, the Dixie Chicks, Dylan, Eminem, Billie Holiday, Nirvana, Elvis, Public Enemy, Sex Pistols, Springsteen, Zappa and others. "Blecha tells a story of how free we aren't. It's a story every music fan needs to know." - Dave Marsh