The Complete Opera Book
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Enthusiasts new to opera who want to learn plots and basic background work by work
- Listeners who frequently attend performances or listen to recordings and need quick access to opera synopses
- Music teachers or popular lecturers seeking reference material searchable by composer
- English-language readers interested in early twentieth-century popular music writing
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking contemporary scholarly opera research or in-depth musical analysis
- Readers hoping for a Chinese translation or line-by-line lyric translation
- Learners expecting systematic music theory and composition technique instruction
Reading tips
- Start by browsing the table of contents and dipping in via a familiar composer or work to build a habit of reference.
- Read the relevant entry before a performance or recording, then revisit it afterward to compare plot and musical impressions.
- Keep your own list of works and mark interesting pieces and versions as you read.
- When encountering an unfamiliar composer, read alongside recordings or video clips for better results.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
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Comments
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About the author
Gustav Kobbé (1857–1918) was an American music critic and writer. Born in New York and a graduate of Columbia University, he served for many years as music critic for the New York Herald. He was known for writing about music for general readers, and his works include How to Appreciate Music, a guide intended to lead the public into music appreciation, and The Pianolist: A Guide for Pianola Players, which deals with playing and using the Pianola. His posthumous work The Complete Opera Book, edited by others and published in 1919, became a widely read opera guide that remains useful for reference. Five of his works are included in this collection.
