Kobbe's Illustrated Opera Book - Thirty Two of the World's Best Loved Operas

Profiles twenty-six operas, offering descriptions of plot and characters, performance histories, critical analyses, and biographical information on the composer

For over 60 years, Kobbe's Complete Opera Book and its successive editions have been the standard opera guides. Recent editions have contained over 1200 pages, crammed with information and documentation, and except for musical quotations, devoid of illustrative material: a mine of information for the confirmed opera lover but too forbidding for the newcomer to opera or for the casual listener. The present volume discusses just 26 operas, profusely illustrated with marvelous plates that are mostly in full color. The textual part, given for each opera, is considerably shorter than in the preceding volumes, and only a few operas have been selected. Since they are "best-loved" operas, one wonders at the choice of Lohengrin over Tannhauser or the omission among the Verdi favorites of La Forza del Destino and Don Carlo . Still, this is a very attractive coffee-table volume that can be recommended for opera lovers rather than opera buffs.
- William Shank, CUNY Graduate Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.