Opera : a Penguin anthology / Stephen Brook

London : Viking, 1995. 1st edition. Hardcover. Fine cloth copy in a near-fine, very slightly edge-dulled dust wrapper. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; 520 pp.; 25 cm. Contents; Opera in Italy -- Opera outside Italy -- Singers: Eighteenth-century singers; Pasta and Malibran; Early-nineteenth-century singers; Late-nineteenth-century singers; Three divas, Patti, Melba, Tetrazzini; Caruso; Chaliapin; Clutch of tenors; Lotte Lehmann; Maria Callas; Some singers of the twentieth century; Art of singing -- Composers: Operatic composers; Mozart; Rossini; Wagner; Wagner at Bayreuth; Verdi; Pucccini; Richard Strauss -- On stage: Opera directors; Auditions; Rehearsal; Performances; Audiences; Opera and money -- Issues in opera: Nature of opera; Opera and ideology; Words v. music; Anti-opera; Libretti and translations -- Opera in fiction. Subjects; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 1756-1791. Operas. Puccini, Giacomo (1858-1924). Operas. Rossini, Gioachino (1792-1868) . Operas. Strauss, Richard 1864-1949. ; Operas. Verdi, Giuseppe 1813-1901. Operas. Wagner, Richard 1813-1883 Operas. Composers ; Anecdotes. Singers . History and criticism.