The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent shape, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
Here are the stories of twenty-five famous operas in the regular repertoire of the Metropolitan Opera, together with a list of the characters in the order of their appearance, descriptions of the prominent scenes, comments on the general character of the music, and about three hundred of the leading airs and motives in musical notation. As an aid to the reader, the story of each opera is given in act-by-act, scene-by-scene detail. A series of biographical notes on the composers has been included.
The most outstanding features of the book are the one hundred superb illustrations by Tenggren, carefully prepared after painstaking research in order to ensure absolute authenticity. A delight to the eye, they portray vividly the most dramatic scenes in the operas and hence are of compelling interest to the reader.
No other opera guide equals this book pictorially. Text and illustrations combine to make it a distinguished volume that all discriminating readers, young and old, will be proud to own.
With a Foreword by Edward Johnson
—from the dust jacket
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