Opera a Crash Course

Providing background knowledge designed to enable readers who are new to opera to derive enhanced enjoyment from it, this book includes a guide to the operatic repertoire from Baroque and Classical to the present. There are also short biographies of the great composers and performers, an explanation of devious plots, coverage of the world's great opera houses, and explanations to help with common difficulties such as what the words mean, why so many people are milling about, and how a woman can possibly make such a noise if she's dying of consumption.