Michael Steen Livres

"She was among 'the most brilliant dramatic stars of our time', according to Franz Liszt, and billed as 'the most talked of opera singer in Europe'. Dickens - reduced to tears by her singing - regarded her as 'one of the greatest actresses of any time'. Liszt also declared that, with Pauline Viardot, the world had finally found a woman composer of genius." "Enchantress of Nations is a lavish biography of this amazing woman whose life spanned most of the 19th century; and it also weaves a rich tapestry of music and literature in France, England and Russia. Michael Steen sympathetically and sensitively explores the passionate 40-year love-affair between Viardot and Ivan Turgenev, the great Russian novelist, as well as her stormy friendship with Charles Gounod, the celebrated French composer. We also meet George Sand, Dickens, Flaubert, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky; Rossini, Berlioz, Chopin, and Liszt, Saint-Saens, Faure and the other Paris-based composers, artists and singers of the period." "Steen recounts the back-stage bitchiness, robbery, duels and violence of Viardot's life and times. Among much else, we read of the unhappiness experienced by the progeny of successful parents - the life of Viardot's eldest child was blighted by a catlogue of miseries."--Jacket

A guide to the biographical backgrounds of classical music's biggest names. It helps you explore the story of Bach, the respectable burgher much of whose vast output was composed amidst petty turf disputes in Lutheran Leipzig, and the ugly, argumentative Beethoven in French-occupied Vienna, obsessed by his laundry.

A compendium of short individual opera-guides to all Wagner's operas to enable the general reader to derive greater enjoyment from the opera experience in home, cinema or opera house. A vast amount of available information has been selected, summarised and presented in a readable way. For more information visit www.greatoperas.net

A compendium of short individual opera-guides to all Puccini's operas to enable the general reader to derive greater enjoyment from the opera experience in home, cinema or opera house. A vast amount of available information has been selected, summarised and presented in a readable way. For more information visit www.greatoperas.net

Zakrojona na wielką skalę, panoramiczna historia biograficzna muzyki klasycznej. W każdym rozdziale znajdziemy życie jednego lub kilku kompozytor�w, nakreślone na społecznym, politycznym i muzycznym tle ich czas�w: m.in. portret Bacha, szacownego mieszczanina, kt�ry większość swych utwor�w napisał wśr�d prowincjonalnych spor�w luterańskiego Lipska; brzydkiego, kł�tliwego Beethovena z obsesją na punkcie prania; albo Mozarta, nadmiernie eksploatowane cudowne dziecko, wok�ł śmierci kt�rego narosło tyle plotek. Napisana żywym, potocznym, a r�wnocześnie pięknym stylem książka, ozdobiona ponad pięćdziesięcioma barwnymi ilustracjami i licznymi czarno- białymi rycinami, mapami i drzewami genealogicznymi składa się na urzekającą biografię gigant�w (mistrz�w) europejskiej muzyki i portret czas�w, w kt�rych przyszło im żyć.