Encyclopedia of Opera On Screen: A Guide to More Than 100 Years of Opera Films, Videos, and DVDs

This bountiful book is a comprehensive guide to the thousands of films, DVDs, and videocassettes featuring operas and opera singers from 1896 to the present. From ABC Television to Franco Zeffirelli, the encyclopedia is a storehouse of fascinating information for film and opera aficionados and casual browsers alike. Find answers to such questions as:

* What were the first operas filmed?

* Why did they make silent films of operas?

* Why was a pseudo-opera written for Citizen Kane?

* What was the title of Maria Callas’s only film?
Organized alphabetically with more than 1,900 fully cross-referenced entries, the book casts a wide net that covers not only expected topics―operas, operettas, zarzuelas, composers, singers, conductors, writers, and film directors―but also the unexpected and offbeat―animated opera, first operas on film, puppet opera films, silent films about opera, and many other lesser-known topics. Encyclopedia of Opera on Screen illuminates the many intersections between opera and film as never before.

Ken Wlaschin is director of Creative Affairs and vice chairman of the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute. Previously he was director of the National Film Theatre and London Film Festival for the British Film Institute.