Explore the vast range of titles available.

In these essays, Roger Parker brings a series of valuable insights to bear on Verdian analysis and criticism, and does so in a way that responds both to an opera-goer's love of musical drama and to a scholar's concern for recent critical trends. As he writes at one point: \"opera challenges us by means of its brash impurity, its loose ends and excess of meaning, its superfluity of narrative secrets.\" Verdi's works, many of which underwent drastic revisions over the years and which sometimes bore marks of an unusual collaboration between composer and librettist, illustrate in particular why it can sometimes be misleading to assign fixed meanings to an opera. Parker instead explores works likeRigoletto, Il trovatore, La forza del destino, andFalstafffrom a variety of angles, and addresses such contentious topics as the composer's involvement with Italian politics, the possibilities of an \"authentic\" staging of his work, and the advantages and pitfalls of analyzing his operas according to terms that his contemporaries might have understood. Parker takes into account many of the interdisciplinary influences currently engaging musicologists, in particular narrative and feminist theory. But he also demonstrates that close attention to the documentary evidence--especially that offered by autograph scores--can stimulate equal interpretive activity. This book serves as a model of research and critical thinking about opera, while nevertheless retaining a deep respect for opera's continuing power to touch generations of listeners.

Who \"speaks\" to us inThe Sorcerer's Apprentice,in Wagner's operas, in a Mahler symphony? In asking this question, Carolyn Abbate opens nineteenth-century operas and instrumental works to new interpretations as she explores the voices projected by music. The nineteenth-century metaphor of music that \"sings\" is thus reanimated in a new context, and Abbate proposes interpretive strategies that \"de-center\" music criticism, that seek the polyphony and dialogism of music, and that celebrate musical gestures often marginalized by conventional music analysis.

Provides an English translation of an Italian original examining the melodrama \"La pie voleuse,\" dating from 1815, which served as the source of the libretto for Rossini's opera \"La gazza ladra,\" in the light of the recent discovery of music for the play written by Alexandre Piccini. Provides numerous musical examples from the Piccini score, and argues that the \"mélodrame historique\" is a a genre worthy of research as the source of most 19th century opera librettos.

The lawsuit names Police Chief Don Corbin, Village Manager Sarah Phillips and police Officers Josh Boudinout and Marvin Gifford. Ashbrook alleges the officers pulled him over without probable cause as he was driving near his home on Feb. 23, 2005. He says the officers used unnecessary force, resulting in a broken bone in his right wrist. Ashbrook did not immediately pull over and became belligerent when he finally was stopped, the police reports said. After being taken to the holding cell, Ashbrook kicked two holes into a wall and caused other damage, police said. A motion filed in September by former Assistant County Prosecutor Chris Strefelt, and later approved by Common Pleas Court Judge Jon Spahr, stated the in-car video taken by police failed to show actions by Ashbrook constituting a felony fleeing charge.

Meanwhile, I noticed in Ashbrook's book that an opera called ''Elisabeth,'' taken in part from ''[Otto] mesi,'' had been put on in Paris after [Donizetti]'s death by one Uranio Fontana. Ah, I thought, Fontana must have put Donizetti's unfinished project in order for him, and now I have found the original autograph. Fontana's score had been published; I bought a copy in London - and opened it to find not a note that resembled the French music at Covent Garden. Everything that was not from ''Otto mesi'' was composed by Fontana! It turned out that French critics at the time knew this, and therefore Donizetti scholars have known it since, even though the printed score doesn't own up to it. But nobody knew Donizetti had composed an ''Elisabeth'' himself. Donizetti wrote for four theaters in Paris. As a semi-comic work ''Elisabeth'' was impossible for the Opera; as a French one, it could not have been for the The^atre des Italiens; various factors make the Opera-Comique unlikely. That leaves the The^atre de la Renaissance, where a French version of ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' had made a hit in 1839. Several other facts support this hunch. In October 1839 Donizetti wrote that he had two projects in the works for that soon-to-be-bankrupt house; one of them he is known to have completed, and of the other there is no trace. It could have been replaced in his plans by ''Elisabeth.'' The company is known to have been weak in bass soloists; ''Elisabeth'' uses only one, and lightly (''Otto mesi'' had had four bass parts, three very demanding). The Renaissance's manager, Antenor Joly, needed a vehicle for the debut of Carlotta Grisi, known as well for her dancing as for her singing, and ''Elisabeth'' has two scenes in mime for the heroine. And one of the librettists had written for the Renaissance before. If indeed the work was intended for Grisi, it was dropped: she sang, ironically, an opera by Uranio Fontana instead. But in 1841 Donizetti was visited by Benjamin Lumley, the new impresario of Her Majesty's Theater in London, who offered him 12,000 francs (an enormous sum) for an Italian opera. Donizetti beseeched the librettist Romani to supply him with a quick text, preferably on ''some familiar subject by Sakespearre, Bayron, Valter Scott or Bulwer.'' It had to be ready by the middle of January or ''we're cooked.'' But it wasn't, nor by February. ''There was now no time to find another poet,'' wrote [William Ashbrook], and so the angry composer ''lost the largest fee he had ever been offered.''

[Homer M. Pennington] and [Catherine Flynn] were referring to [Joseph \"Tiny\" Metheny]'s contact with Cathy Ann Magaziner, 39, whom Metheny is also accused of killing. Her decapitated body was found in a shallow grave on the grounds of a Baltimore pallet company where Metheny worked as a forklift operator. Metheny is scheduled to go on trial in that case after the [Kimberly Spicer] trial. The defense then rested its case. [Clifton J. Gordy] said he will rule today or tomorrow on whether Metheny is guilty of aggravating crimes such as sexual assault. Closing arguments will follow, and Gordy, who is hearing the case without a jury, will decide whether Metheny is guilty of first-degree murder. Metheny allegedly later told a friend, William Clinton Ashbrook Jr., that he needed help moving a body. Ashbrook testified this month that he thought it was a joke. That was before Metheny al- legedly moved a pile of trash andtires to reveal the decaying body of a young woman.

Review.

The Lower Macungie Township supervisors said they will withhold building permits from the Mill Brook Farms housing development until problems of storm water runoff from the site can be resolved by the developers. William Malkames, attorney for the developers, Brookhaven Development Corp., said the problem is the responsibility of the individual lot owners. Malkames engaged in a debate with Supervisor Marilyn Jones, with both using the Bible to convey their arguments. Using the Bible reference again, Jones said the township deadline is fair. \"God doesn't say, 'Thou shalt not, thou shalt not,' and give you a 10-day notice,\" Jones said.

  \"I was startled that it was such a wide margin,\" [Stanley Hall] said. \"The people decided what they wanted, and that's it.\" \"If I won, I'm happy. We'll have a new council there. Maybe a new outlook for Tieton,\" [Jacqueline Williams] said. \"If I don't win, [Felisa Cox] does a wonderful job.\" \"I'm in shock,\" [Lisa Munoz] said. \"I'm surprised, and I look forward to being a councilwoman for the next four years and being a voice to the people here.\"