Bluffer's Guide To Opera: Instant Wit and Wisdom

Instantly acquire all the knowledge you need to pass as an expert in the world of opera. Know what to say, where to say it, what not to say, where to be seen, and even what to wear. Never again confuse a castrato with a contralto, a prima donna with sopratitoli, or O Sole Mio with an ice cream advert. Bask in the admiration of your fellow opera lovers as you pronounce confidently on the merits of Donizetti’s bel canto over Wagner’s leitmotiv, and hold your own against the most sneering of opera buffs..

Keith Hann has been working in PR for 35 years, during which time he has been a director, managing director and deputy chairman of London-based financial PR consultancies, founded his own consultancy, worked in-house as Director of Corporate Affairs at a leading national supermarket chain and starred in a TV reality documentary (Life in the Freezer Cabinet, BBC2, 2013). Over the last 40 years, Keith has watched the curtain rise on more than 1,000 operatic performances, and waited until it fell on 997 of them. Decades of skillful bluffing brought him to the brink of retirement without any lasting romantic entanglements, until a momentary lapse of concentration one evening at Covent Garden led to his marriage at the age of 54, and the subsequent arrival of two children.