Opera, What's All the Screaming About?

Readers of this entertaining guide to opera by Roger Englander will be hooked by the first chapter, which summarizes the plots of fifty popular operas in outrageous, yet accurate, tabloid headlines. Englander introduces opera's great composers and performers; traces the history of opera from its origins in Renaissance Florence through present-day musical theater; and uses an in-depth study of Bizet's Carmen to demonstrate how an opera evolves. Throughout, his personal asides and observations dispel the mystique of opera and make this grand and complex art accessible to all.