Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellin

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive but superficial
Review: In this book, Osborne covers the entire operatic oeuvres of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini -- both the well-known standards and the rarely performed works. For each opera, the author provides a brief history of its composition, a bare-bones plot summary, and a very short (usually just a paragraph) critical evaluation. The entries are somewhat longer for the standard repertory pieces. For the rarities, Osborne also lists significant performances through 1992. There's a recommended discography, helpful though by now somewhat dated.

If you're looking for in-depth musical analysis, this will disappoint you. It's more of a Kobbe's for bel canto.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat useful Lists
Review: This work contains a complete listing of the operas of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. They are presented in chronological order by composer, unnumbered to make reference to the discography more difficult. The latter is fairly useless. In most cases, only one version is listed, often one no longer available, with absolutely no discussion of the merits of the recording, either in absolute terms or relative to others. The text is very long on trivia connected with the first production with no analysis of what effect any of this had on the composition, and virtually no discussion of subsequent revisions and changes. In the case of the more obsure opera, there may be some trivia about performances in the twentieth century as well. Analysis where it occurs at all is usually superficial. One gets no idea of the composer's development, or the development of bel canto writing. Most of the few connections drawn among the various composers comes through rather snide comments that one piece or another reminds the author of someone else.