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If you are interested in the acoustics of the theaters where Opera is performed, this book is for you. Very entertaining, and readable, with lots of facts, but also lots of opinions.
Elvio Giudici is a veteran (he is around 70 years old) Italian critic, and this is one of the best Opera discography reviews one can get his hands on. On the last edition, it contains more than 700 different operas, with more than 2300 different recordings reviewed. And all reviews are quite good, of course you can or can't agree with it's being said, but it's always interesting and well supported. The only drawback: I think it's only in Italian. (well, it's a little bit expensive, too).
Festat liked this post
If you are interested in the acoustics of the theaters where Opera is performed, this book is for you. Very entertaining, and readable, with lots of facts, but also lots of opinions.
What's the relative percentage of CDs vs. Videos? And is the video part up to date, or mostly old VHS?Originally Posted by Schigolch
Elvio Giudici is a veteran (he is around 70 years old) Italian critic, and this is one of the best Opera discography reviews one can get his hands on. On the last edition, it contains more than 700 different operas, with more than 2300 different recordings reviewed. And all reviews are quite good, of course you can or can't agree with it's being said, but it's always interesting and well supported. The only drawback: I think it's only in Italian. (well, it's a little bit expensive, too).
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
There are much more CDs than DVDs (I'd say, roughly, 6-7 cd per each DVD), but in the last edition there are a sizable number of DVDs, too.
A collection of essays, interesting for the Verdi aficionado.
Not lacking in interest, but a little bit dreary overall.
The book, or Bizet's world?
The book.
Bizet's world can be presented in a much more enticing way.
I don't agree with many of Said's opinions, but reading them it's always a pleasure.
And above all today it's his birthday!
Most of my reading lately has been background material for my Tosca novel. The most important single source is Victorien Sardou's 1887 play La Tosca, which gives much more information about the characters and historical circumstances than is found in Illica and Giacosa's libretto. It's interesting to discover, among other things, Scarpia's first name, Tosca's childhood history, and Mario's largely French background. Also that the painter's best feature, apparently, is his sexy mustache!
Amfortas liked this post
A light book, just for fun.
Is John Rosselli's book "Life of Bellini" good? It would cost me quite much to order it but I want to finally read some larger literary study about Bellini. Literary study I say, but I don't really want totally academic thing. Anyway, let's make the question simple: is this biography enjoyable, informative and worth of trust in it's content?
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