Learning Opera

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.

They died once already. They just don’t remember it. Hidden inside a physics-warping nebula, the survivors of the Nova Legio uncover a secret that unmakes everything they believed: a galaxy seeded with enslaved human legions, an ancient enemy that hungers to unravel all life, and a shadowy protector whose “Shadow Imperative” may be humanity’s only hope, or its final chain. In the series finale, Valerius and Livia face one last choice: serve a kinder master, or forge their own path toward a free and unconquered sun. Nova Legio: The Shadow Imperative is an epic Roman space-opera ...

I'm not built to lead an invasion. I'm not built to feel guilty about one either, but that's optional equipment I installed myself. Six months ago, I was Hegemony hardware with a targeting computer and zero feelings. Now I've got a stolen dreadnought, twenty-three underqualified rebels who think they can win a ground war against half a galaxy, and a plan so audacious even I'm not entirely sure it counts as a plan rather than a really elaborate way to die. The target: the most heavily defended palace in four hundred years of organized cruelty, and the man sitting inside it who's responsible ...

It is 1880, in the Opera House in Paris. Everybody is talking about the Phantom of the Opera, the ghost that lives somewhere under the Opera House. The Phantom is a man in black clothes. He is a body without a head, he is a head without a body. He has a yellow face, he has no nose, he has black holes for eyes. Everybody is afraid of the Phantom – the singers, the dancers, the directors, the stage workers.

New opera enthusiasts and seasoned aficionados alike will delight in Dale Harris' witty and insightful analyses of La Traviata, Carmen, The Magic Flute, and La Boheme. The notable music critic, whose lectures at the Metropolitan used to be sell-out events, examines these operas in terms of libretto, plot, music, performance history, and cultural background, amply illustrated with musical examples.

DATASPHERE: THE THRESHOLD Book Four in the Datasphere Series What if the voice that finally answers you… was never anyone but you, screaming through a mirror? Earth's newly conscious Datasphere reached across the void with four words: You are not the only one awake. Now something has replied, and every hour that passes proves the reply is wrong in ways no one notices until it's too late. William Adams, The Shading, has spent three books learning to live merged with a planet's mind. He thought the hardest part was over. Then a hostile version of himself crosses the bridge, his face, his ...

Bred for war, the Nova Legio are spent like coin, Roman blood poured into the grinding swarm of the insectoid K’Tharr as “biologically expendable assets.” Valerius and Livia have had enough. In the shadows a resistance is growing, and a suicide plan takes shape: steal a crippled shuttle, fly it into the heart of the K’Tharr Brood-Ship, and cut out its living brain. It is a mission no one is meant to survive, but some fires cannot be recalibrated. Roma invicta. Nova Legio: Echoes of Defiance is a Roman military space-opera adventure — Book 3 of The Legio Chronicles. But this ...

New opera enthusiasts and seasoned aficionados alike will delight in Dale Harris' witty and insightful analyses of The Barber of Seville, Madame Butterfly, Aida, and Lucia de Lammermoor. The notable music critic, whose lectures at the Metropolitan used to be sell-out events, examines these operas in terms of libretto, plot, music, performance history, and cultural background, amply illustrated with musical examples.

Your French is good enough to talk. This book makes it good enough to read. You can order a coffee in Paris and survive small talk, but real French novels still knock you out after two pages. Textbooks bore you, beginner readers feel childish. What you need is a real story, told in the French you actually need. Meet the ghost of the Paris Opera. You know the mask and the falling chandelier. Here is the novel they come from, adapted for learners: a man in black with the face of a skull, a voice behind the locked door of Christine's dressing room, a box at the opera that must never be sold, ...

Uncovering a deep-space alien conspiracy targeting the most powerful leaders of the Galactic Federation has launched bounty hunter Lisa’s career into orbit. Known across the outer colonies as a brutal and fearless enforcer, Lisa’s reputation for handling covert retrieval missions with precision—and discretion—has made her a go-to agent for planetary elites. From the high-tech genius zones of New Athens to the post-human biotech cities of Furcadia, Lisa’s newest contracts send her hurtling into worlds packed with interstellar danger, diplomatic nightmares, and awkward romantic ...

A retired Scotland Yard detective. A world-famous tenor dead on stage. A glass of wine that should never have been poured. Edward Blake arrives in Verona in July for opera under the stars at the ancient Arena and a good glass of Valpolicella. But on the first evening, during a performance of Aida, the celebrated tenor Riccardo Bellini collapses on stage in front of thousands. The police call it a heart attack. Edward saw something else: a suspicious bottle, and a conductor who never moved a muscle. It was murder. As Edward clashes with the young inspector Sofia Martini, the case pulls them ...

Ascoltando si impara!... Anche la letteratura, con il Prof. In questo AudioLibro, che fa parte della collana dedicata alla letteratura, ci avvicineremo alla vita di Giovanni Pascoli e alle sue opere più significative, più o meno note, introdotte da un'accurata spiegazione. Il carattere, la carriera, le relazioni personali del grande poeta, sono qui evidenziate e analizzate, e offrono una visione completa, e per certi versi innovativa, rispetto alla classica immagine scolastica del Pascoli del fanciullino.

"Ascoltando... s'impara! Anche la letteratura, con il Prof! In questo audiobook, che fa parte della collana dedicata alla letteratura italiana, esploreremo il mondo di Italo Svevo. Il Prof. vi racconta Italo Svevo e i suoi romanzi più significativi: La coscienza di Zeno, Senilità, Una vita. Poi esplora anche le sue opere più o meno celebri, e vi parla della vita del grande scrittore italiano, della sua sfida creativa instancabile, proposta con un linguaggio conquistato a fatica, e pensato per essere compreso da tutti gli italiani.

Ascoltando si impara!... Anche la letteratura, con il Prof. In questo audiolibro che fa parte della collana dedicata alla letteratura, ci avvicineremo alla vita di Ugo Foscolo e alle sue opere più significative, compreso "Dei Sepolcri", introdotto da un'accurata spiegazione. Il carattere, la carriera, le relazioni personali del grande poeta, sono qui evidenziate e analizzate, e offrono una visione completa e per certi versi innovativa.

Ascoltando si impara!... Anche la letteratura, con il Prof. In questo audiolibro che fa parte della collana dedicata alla letteratura, ci avvicineremo alla vita e alle opere di Luigi Pirandello. Il Prof vi parla di Pirandello e delle sue opere più significative, dei suoi pensieri, i romanzi, e le celebri opere teatrali.

In questo AudioBook che fa parte della collana dedicata alla letteratura italiana, esploriamo l'incredibile mondo di Gabriele d'Annunzio. Il Prof. vi parla di lui, "il Vate" e dei suoi romanzi più significativi: "Il Piacere", "La Venere delle rocce", "Le Novelle". Poi esplora la sua immensa opera poetica: "Le Lodi" e le celebri liriche in esse contenute. Prima tra tutte, "La pioggia nel pineto", forse la sua poesia più bella, la più suggestiva. In questo AudioBook dedicato a d'Annunzio, il Prof. vi racconta la vita di questo eclettico scrittore, poeta, artista, creativo, della sua ricerca continua verso l'eccellenza e l'eccentricità nella vita come nella sua produzione artistica.

In "Imperial Prince: Heir Apparent," a young boy's life is transformed when he and his mother embark on a journey to imperial space to receive medical treatment. However, their visit takes an unexpected turn when they discover that the boy's grandfather has become the ruling Emperor of the galaxy, and desires an heir to secure his legacy. In an instant, the boy finds himself thrust into a world of political intrigue, danger, and adventure as the heir apparent to the throne. With the help of his mother and a team of loyal supporters, he must navigate treacherous power struggles, fight for ...

Ascoltando si impara! Anche la letteratura, con il Prof. In questo AudioLibro, che fa parte della collana dedicata alla letteratura, ci avvicineremo alla vita di Giovanni Pascoli e alle sue opere più significative, più o meno note, introdotte da un'accurata spiegazione. Il carattere, la carriera, le relazioni personali del grande poeta, sono qui evidenziate e analizzate, e offrono una visione completa, e per certi versi innovativa, rispetto alla classica immagine scolastica del Pascoli del fanciullino.

Ascoltando... si impara! Anche la letteratura, con il Prof! Questo Audiobook, che fa parte della collana dedicata alla letteratura, è dedicato a Giacomo Leopardi. Il Prof. vi parla del grande poeta romantico e delle sue opere più significative: le celebri e immortali poesie, tra le quali "A Silvia" e "Il Passero solitario", i saggi politici, le traduzioni; e poi la sua vita trascorsa tra la ormai celebre casa paterna di Recanati e Milano, Firenze, Napoli.

"Physiology of the Opera" by John H. Swaby describes the opera and its actors in great detail - on the stage and behind the curtains. Excerpt: As an introduction to the dissertation upon which we are about to enter, such an antiquarian view of the subject might be taken as would tend to establish a parallel between the ancient Greek tragedy and the modern sanguinary Italian opera, the strong resemblance therein being displayed of Signor Salvi trilling on the stage, to the immortal Thespis jargoning from a dung-cart.