An Interpretive Guide to Operatic Arias: A Handbook for Singers, Coaches, Teachers, and Students

A premier singer and master teacher here tells other singers how to get the most from 151 famous arias selected for their popularity or greatness from 66 operas, ranging in time and style from Christopher Gluck to Carlisle Floyd, from Mozart to Menotti. For each aria, the author gives the dramatic and musical context, advice about interpretation and the lyric - with the original language (if it is not English) and an idiomatic American English translation, in parallel columns. The major operatic traditions - French, German, Italian, Russian and American - are represented, as are the major voice types - soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass-baritone and bass. The guide should be of value to professional singers as a source of reference or renewed inspiration and as a memory refresher; to coaches for checking and broadcasting personal impressions; to young singers and students for learning; to teachers who have enjoyed less than half a century of experience; and to opera broadcast listeners and telecast viewers who want to understand what goes into the sounds and sights that delight them.