The New Kobbe's Opera Book (1997)

Rating:
Summary: The Opera Bible
Review: It could be an exaggeration when I call the Kobbes Opera Guide a Bible for opera lovers. But it's a very resourceful book on operatic composers, performers and the rich history of opera from its early days in Baroque Italy. Everything you want to know is here...the opera comique style, Baroque masters such as Gluck and Handel, the Rossini operas, bel canto beauties such as the Donizetti operas, German operas and French operas. It is a very monumental source of information on singers as well, sopranos from the very talked about Maria Callas (1923-1977), Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, and recent singers as Renee Fleming and Sumi Jo, tenors Placido Domingo, Nicolai Gedda, Luciano Pavoratti, Jon Vickers, and their careers. A must have for any true opera buff. Immerse yourself into the stories of operas and its fascinating background in music.

Rating:
Summary: ease of reference greatly appreciated
Review: The new format of this magnificent reference book is the most outstanding feature of this revised, updated work. The prior Kobbe's clumsily, but not wholly improperly , catlogued composers like a taxonomical excercise. The genus being the chronological era and the species is the nationality of the composer. Thus German composers in the nineteenth century with singular emphasis on Wagner are grouped; then Italian opera for that century, and so on through Europe. Then we come to the twentieth century and all over again with this format but encompassing the world by nation. The revised volume has nothing more outstanding than an alphabetical arrangement for the subjects, but how outstanding and important this seemingly simple change is cannot be overestimated. This is a required reference book for opera afficianados whatever level of knowledge of the subject one possesses.