Amazon.com description: Product Description: Available now, for the first time, is this single volume of opera reference with selections carefully extracted from the classic four-volume set of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera--the most comprehensive dictionary of opera in the world. The New Grove Book of Operas presents the most popular entries from the four-volume encyclopedia and combines the meticulous Grove scholarship with a lightness of touch and readability that will delight any opera-goer. The selections have been made by editor and world-renowned musicologist Stanley Sadie.
The New Grove Book of Operas includes over 250 operas performed around the world, in major opera houses, for the past quarter of a century, from the very earliest operas still in production to the most recent works of the twentieth century. A handful of additional works has also been chosen as having particular interest, merit, or historical significance.
Listed alphabetically by opera, the entries range from Handel's Acis and Galatea, to Verdi's Macbeth, to Britten's Peter Grimes, to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Each includes a full synopsis of the plot described by the leading authority on either the opera itself or the composer, a cast list, a note on the singers in the original production, and information on the origins of the work and its literary and social background. Contributions conclude with a brief comment on the particular opera's place in operatic history. The stunning color and black-and-white illustrations throughout bring a fascinating and often amusing dimension to the text and show how the staging of opera has changed from its original to its most modern "deconstructed" productions.
Fully cross-referenced with a listing of operas by composer, an index of characters, an index of first lines of arias, and a complete glossary, The New Grove Book of Operas is both remarkably easy to use for the novice and comprehensive enough in its scholarship to satisfy even the most sophisticated opera buff. It is the essential, must-have guide for a season at the opera.