The New Pocket Kobbé's Opera Book

Oct 8, 2024 12:41 AM

Author:Earl Of Harwood

The New Pocket Kobbe's Complete Opera Book is the world's leading reference work on opera, and (in the words of Bernard Levin) 'no single-volume operatic guide can possibly compare with it'.

Kobbe is the only book which summaries the libretti of the world's opera, describes their music and gives a history of their performance within a single volume. But it is a large and relatively expensive book. The new pocket edition, at a price accessible to the huge new audience for opera, has been redesigned and extended, existing entries have been rewritten, and new operas included. The total number of works covered is now over 200, including important new works like John Adams Nixon in China, Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain and Thomas Ades's Powder Her Face, and a number of half-forgotten works that are now undergoing revival. Unlike the previous edition, it is now simply arranged, alphabetically by composer.

Lord Harewood's strongly individual commentaries, together with his unparalleled knowledge of and enthusiasm for opera, make the New Pocket Kobbe a book no opera-goer can afford to be without.

Reviews

Deayton…is a born host, an arch, deadpan foil to contestants' excesses.

—— The Independent

Nothing is off limits

—— Reveal

Excellent critical writing ... Biskind's pastiche of right-wing paranoia is spot on

—— Irish Times

Biskind's wide-ranging arguments offer considerable food for thought

—— London Review of Books

The Sky is Falling! is not only insanely readable, it demonstrates how the way for Trump and all kinds of fundamentalists was paved years ago by apparently apolitical popular culture. This is a book about the seismic change at the very heart of today's society, and a book for all those who want to know exactly what a mess we're in.

—— Slavoj Žižek

Peter Biskind's kaleidoscopic deep dive into the symbiotic relationship between the narratives of popular entertainment and our political culture had me talking out loud to myself. You'll never look at your favorite movies and TV shows the same way again. And you shouldn't.

—— Steven Soderbergh

Funny, intelligent and frightening ... What happens when pop turns to pulp? When "nothing entertains but disaster?" When "democracy has all but dissolved in the acid rain of money?" Read this marvellous book and find the answers

—— Michael Wood

A breathless compendium of storylines and audacious analysis ... touching on worthwhile questions about how film and TV shape our sense of history and how the world works. Pop culture has become pulp culture... which superhero will come to our rescue?

—— Times

The only thing better than seeing a good movie is reading what Peter Biskind has to say about it. Who else can explicate the hidden politics of movies and make you laugh out loud at the same time?

—— Barbara Ehrenreich

The great chronicler of Hollywood in the late twentieth century turns his critical eye to the cinema and television of the twenty first. Essential reading

—— Colin MacCabe

A bold, witty, and brilliantly argued analysis of the role pop culture has played in the rise of American extremism

—— Ruth Reichl

Your book was . . . like a bag of pot, with me saying, 'I'm not gonna smoke.' But I was insatiable

—— Quentin Tarantino on EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS

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