Rakuten Kobo

Shopping Cart

Item(s) unavailable for purchase

Please review your cart. You can remove the unavailable item(s) now or we'll automatically remove it at Checkout.

itemsitem

- Unlimited access to eBooks
  
  Unlimited access to audiobooks
  
  No commitment, cancel anytime at kobo.com/account/subscriptions
  
  Get 1 credit every month for the audiobook of your choice
  
  No commitment, cancel anytime at kobo.com/account/subscriptions
  
  Unlimited access to eBooks
  
  Unlimited access to audiobooks
  
  No commitment, cancel anytime at kobo.com/account/subscriptions
  Audiobook
  by ,
  
  Available:
  
  . No commitment, cancel anytime at kobo.com/account/subscriptions.
  
  Pre-order
  1 audiobook monthly
  
  + FREE 30-day trial
  
  Special Offer
  
  Get 1 credit every month to exchange for an audiobook of your choice
  
  *No commitment, cancel anytime
  
  FREE

itemsitem

Unlimited access to eBooks

Unlimited access to audiobooks

No commitment, cancel anytime at kobo.com/account/subscriptions

Get 1 credit every month for the audiobook of your choice

No commitment, cancel anytime at kobo.com/account/subscriptions

Unlimited access to eBooks

Unlimited access to audiobooks

No commitment, cancel anytime at kobo.com/account/subscriptions
Audiobook
by ,

Available:
. No commitment, cancel anytime at kobo.com/account/subscriptions.

Pre-order
1 audiobook monthly

+ FREE 30-day trial

Special Offer

Get 1 credit every month to exchange for an audiobook of your choice

*No commitment, cancel anytime

FREE

Recommended For You

Skip side bar filters

Mozart's Don Giovanni

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
With a wealth of famous tunes and meticulous characterisation, Don Giovanni is an undisputed masterpiece created by Mozart out of a thread-bare fairground gig. The Don – for whom both sexes have a sneaking admiration – gatecrashes proceedings, serenading and seducing as he goes. As wily as he is insatiable, he outclasses all who are out to get him, including a jealous bumpkin and the down-at-heel ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

With a wealth of famous tunes and meticulous characterisation, Don Giovanni is an undisputed masterpiece created by Mozart out of a thread-bare fairground gig. The Don – for whom both sexes have a sneaking admiration – gatecrashes proceedings, serenading and seducing as he goes. As wily as he is insatiable, he outclasses all who are out to get him, including a jealous bumpkin and the down-at-heel
... Read more
Puccini's Tosca

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
Tosca's première in Rome in January 1900 was nearly disrupted by a terrorist threat to blow up Italy's King Umberto. Victorien Sardou had written the melodrama for the great actress Sarah Bernhardt. Giacomo Puccini's popular opera is a tale of sadism and brutality, torture, attempted rape, murder, an execution and two suicides. 'Realism' was in vogue: Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana had been a ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Tosca's première in Rome in January 1900 was nearly disrupted by a terrorist threat to blow up Italy's King Umberto. Victorien Sardou had written the melodrama for the great actress Sarah Bernhardt. Giacomo Puccini's popular opera is a tale of sadism and brutality, torture, attempted rape, murder, an execution and two suicides. 'Realism' was in vogue: Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana had been a
... Read more
Puccini's Madama Butterfly

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
Butterfly is a delicate and impressionable geisha who thinks she has married Pinkerton, a US naval officer briefly stationed in Japan. Naive and loving as she is, she does not realise that for him the marriage is a sham, an extended 'date'. It's not long before he goes away, leaving her pregnant. Still, she trusts that he will return one fine day (Un bel dì). He does, but it is not the homecoming ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Butterfly is a delicate and impressionable geisha who thinks she has married Pinkerton, a US naval officer briefly stationed in Japan. Naive and loving as she is, she does not realise that for him the marriage is a sham, an extended 'date'. It's not long before he goes away, leaving her pregnant. Still, she trusts that he will return one fine day (Un bel dì). He does, but it is not the homecoming
... Read more
Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
With the 'Tristan chord' at the start of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, the composer launched modern music. The political refugee, a former revolutionary, was living in Zurich when the lovely Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a rich businessman, inspired him to break off from working on Siegfried, part of his 'Ring cycle', and refocus his efforts on Tristan. Expelled from there, Wagner ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

With the 'Tristan chord' at the start of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, the composer launched modern music. The political refugee, a former revolutionary, was living in Zurich when the lovely Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a rich businessman, inspired him to break off from working on Siegfried, part of his 'Ring cycle', and refocus his efforts on Tristan. Expelled from there, Wagner
... Read more
Britten's Peter Grimes

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
Britten's opera Peter Grimes is based on George Crabbe's horrifying poem The Borough about early 19th century Aldeburgh, a North Sea fishing town in East Anglia. Its premiere at Sadlers Wells in 1945, shortly after VE Day, was a landmark moment in British operatic history. Britten's partner Peter Pears – like Britten a pacifist and conscientious objector – was in the title role. Britten and Pears, ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Britten's opera Peter Grimes is based on George Crabbe's horrifying poem The Borough about early 19th century Aldeburgh, a North Sea fishing town in East Anglia. Its premiere at Sadlers Wells in 1945, shortly after VE Day, was a landmark moment in British operatic history. Britten's partner Peter Pears – like Britten a pacifist and conscientious objector – was in the title role. Britten and Pears,
... Read more
Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
The great Russian poet Pushkin's novel in verse tells the story of Tatyana, a love-struck country girl who unwisely wrote to the arrogant city-slicker Yevgeny Onegin professing her love. The tale resonated with Tchaikovsky when he found himself callously dismissing the suit of a student who similarly approached him out of the blue: within weeks, Tchaikovsky then married her! It was a disastrous ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

The great Russian poet Pushkin's novel in verse tells the story of Tatyana, a love-struck country girl who unwisely wrote to the arrogant city-slicker Yevgeny Onegin professing her love. The tale resonated with Tchaikovsky when he found himself callously dismissing the suit of a student who similarly approached him out of the blue: within weeks, Tchaikovsky then married her! It was a disastrous
... Read more
Rossini's The Barber of Seville

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
The première in 1816 in Rome of Gioachino Rossini's famous opera was a fiasco comparable to those of Wagner's Tannhäuser and Bizet's Carmen. But Il barbiere di Siviglia was soon recognised as being among the greatest of comic operas, comparable to those of Mozart. Even Beethoven was enthusiastic.Figaro, Seville's barber, is confident of a good pay-off for facilitating the elopement of Rosina with ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

The première in 1816 in Rome of Gioachino Rossini's famous opera was a fiasco comparable to those of Wagner's Tannhäuser and Bizet's Carmen. But Il barbiere di Siviglia was soon recognised as being among the greatest of comic operas, comparable to those of Mozart. Even Beethoven was enthusiastic.Figaro, Seville's barber, is confident of a good pay-off for facilitating the elopement of Rosina with
... Read more
Bizet's Carmen

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
The Paris audience in 1875 was shocked by the sexually explicit realism of Bizet's exotic operatic masterpiece, its 'verismo' depiction of low life and brutal passion. But since the disastrous première – a sensational failure which hastened Bizet's premature death – it has been the greatest operatic success. It led to a film opera, a jazz opera, a rock ballet and a Broadway musical. Equally, it ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

The Paris audience in 1875 was shocked by the sexually explicit realism of Bizet's exotic operatic masterpiece, its 'verismo' depiction of low life and brutal passion. But since the disastrous première – a sensational failure which hastened Bizet's premature death – it has been the greatest operatic success. It led to a film opera, a jazz opera, a rock ballet and a Broadway musical. Equally, it
... Read more
Puccini's La Bohème

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
Puccini's obsession with detail ensured the success of La Bohème, his opera about the impoverished 'artistes' in Paris in the 1830s. Soon after its première, people started calling their baby daughters Mimi. The story of this seamstress, her hectic but fraught love affair with the poet Rodolfo and her tragic death from consumption (tuberculosis), never fail to touch the audience. Che gelida manina ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Puccini's obsession with detail ensured the success of La Bohème, his opera about the impoverished 'artistes' in Paris in the 1830s. Soon after its première, people started calling their baby daughters Mimi. The story of this seamstress, her hectic but fraught love affair with the poet Rodolfo and her tragic death from consumption (tuberculosis), never fail to touch the audience. Che gelida manina
... Read more
Great Operas

A Guide to Twenty-Five of the World's Finest Musical Experiences

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
With four famous operas each from Mozart, Verdi and Puccini, and two each from Rossini and Donizetti, there is a feast of information. Here are short guides to The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni; to the splendour of Aïda, the heart-breaking La Traviata; the drama of Tosca. The range is very broad. There is Wagner's great love story Tristan und Isolde; there is Johann Strauss's light comedy ... Read more

$10.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

With four famous operas each from Mozart, Verdi and Puccini, and two each from Rossini and Donizetti, there is a feast of information. Here are short guides to The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni; to the splendour of Aïda, the heart-breaking La Traviata; the drama of Tosca. The range is very broad. There is Wagner's great love story Tristan und Isolde; there is Johann Strauss's light comedy
... Read more
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
Although the story of Figaro's success in preventing the Count of Almaviva's seduction of his fiancée Susanna was politically explosive, it was tolerated in the court of the relatively enlightened Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. Mozart's opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, uses a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, and was premièred in Vienna in 1786. It was based on a famous play by the Frenchman Beaumarchais, a ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Although the story of Figaro's success in preventing the Count of Almaviva's seduction of his fiancée Susanna was politically explosive, it was tolerated in the court of the relatively enlightened Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. Mozart's opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, uses a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, and was premièred in Vienna in 1786. It was based on a famous play by the Frenchman Beaumarchais, a
... Read more
Mozart's The Magic Flute

A Short Guide to a Great Opera

by Michael Steen ...

Series series Great Operas
Even Salieri, the notorious villain of Peter Shaffer's drama Amadeus, admired Mozart's comic opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), which was premièred in Vienna a few weeks before Mozart's death in December 1791. Though sometimes enjoyed as a children's opera, this is not a pantomime: rooted in Freemasonry, the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, it promotes the ideals of progress, virtue, ... Read more

$2.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Even Salieri, the notorious villain of Peter Shaffer's drama Amadeus, admired Mozart's comic opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), which was premièred in Vienna a few weeks before Mozart's death in December 1791. Though sometimes enjoyed as a children's opera, this is not a pantomime: rooted in Freemasonry, the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, it promotes the ideals of progress, virtue,
... Read more