An invaluable guide for both casual opera fans and afficionados,this volume contains act-by-act de*ions of operatic worksranging from the early seventeenth century masterworks ofMonteverdi and Purcell to the modern classics of Menotti andBritten. Written in a lively anecdotal style, entries includecharacter de*ions, historical background, and much more.

Unique and comprehensive, this collection features a tremendous variety of slow movements for keyboard players. Highlights include selections from the sonatas of Haydn and Mozart, Chopin preludes, and classics such as the opening movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata, Bach's Sinfonia in F Minor, and Debussy's Claire de Lune.

Preserved by Arabic mathematicians and canonized by Christianscholars, Aristotle’s works have shaped Western thought, science,and religion for nearly two thousand years. Richard McKeon’s TheBasic Works of Aristotle –constituted out of the definitiveOxford translation and in print as a Random House hardcover forsixty years–has long been considered the best available one-volumeAristotle. Appearing in paperback at long last, this editionincludes selections from the Organon, On the Heavens, The ShortPhysical Treatises, Rhetoric, among others, and On the Soul, OnGeneration and Corruption, Physics, Metaphysics, NicomacheanEthics, Politics, and Poetics in their entirety.

Though Alfons Mucha (1860-1939) achieved lasting international acclaim as an Art Nouveau painter, graphic designer, and decorator, his outstanding photography is not as well known. His photographic sketchbook and personal visual diary, comprising photographs from the mid-1880s until the end of his life, constitutes a unique and profound artistic statement. This mosaic of captured moments reveals the intimate and personal basis of both Mucha's own life as an artist and the time period in which he lived. The behind-the-scenes glimpses of his studio provided here prove that Mucha--the creator of the ideal of Art Nouveau beauty--was one of the pioneers of the classic nude in Czech photography. This is the first time such a large selection of Mucha's extensive photographic work has been assembled as a book. Many of the photos in this book, never before published, reveal hitherto unknown aspects of Mucha's work, which will be of interest to the general reader and the photographic connoisseur alike. --This text refe

When the final tally of key movers in the plastic arts of this century is compiled, there is no doubt that maestro of movement Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the man who put the swing into sculpture, will be near numero uno. Calder took it off the plinth, gave it to the wind, and left us kinetic playgrounds of the spirit. He operated at the point where Modernity and nature Fused, developing an environmental art that changed the medium Forever. Visiting his Paris atelier in 1932, Duchamp coined the term "Mobiles" For Calder's delicate wire and disc pieces, constructions that would soon become immensely popular. But he didn't rest on his innovations. Friends with Miro, Mondrian and Leger, Calder also turned his hand to painting, drawing, gouaches, toys, textiles and utensil design. A graphic master who sketched as much in air as in ink, the Sixties and Seventies saw Calder take on the monumental, translating the dynamics of cities into both his Mobiles and "Stabiles". At a time when sculpture was perceived to be

An illustrated, inside look at the rock group Nirvana offers acandid look the band's members, chronicling their rapid rise in themusic world and revealing the true story of the drug-abuse rumorssurrounding them.

He was the founding father of modern art, the grand master who pointed painting forward on its way from Impressionism to the 20th century: Paul Cezanne (1839-1906). In Paris, but above all in Provence, he quested tirelessly for "a harmony parallel to nature" - discovering it in still lifes of apples, in bathers, or in the renowned landscapes of his beloved Montagne Sainte-Victoire. This book discusses this extraordinary artist's major works and his theories of painting and colour.

Vincent van Gogh's paintings and his tempestuous life story continue to command enormous popular interest, inspiring numerous blockbuster exhibitions and biographies. This compact collection returns to what started it all--the paintings themselves. With a hand-held size, this volume manages to be affordable and comprehensive--a veritable dictionary of the artist's work. Included are all genres and periods of his work-from his gorgeous irises to his striking night skies and portraiture. Introducing the paintings is an intriguing essay by celebrated art critic Robert Hughes. This book provides an essential resource for students as well as for all art lovers. And it represents an extraordinary value. No other book on the artist offers as many images at this price.

Life is life, and art is art. ""It is my wish to come very close, strikinglyclose, to the times in which we live, without submitting toartistic dogma...I need the connection to the world of senses, thecourage to portray ugliness, life as it comes."" - Otto Dix In the 1920s, Otto Dix was the artist ofNeue Sachlichkeit, the New Objectivity, par excellence. Painting ina very realistic, almost photographic style, he chose as subjectsthe poverty, violence, death, and war that he experienced as asoldier in World War I. After this terrible experience, he paintedthe famous triptych "The War." Dix staged the world as a play, a grotesquefarce. But the form he chose to do so was based on the classicalcanon of beauty. Dix lived his life and served art, for he adheredto the age-old rule that the American painter Ad Reinhardt put in anutshell: "Life is life, and art is art."

In this compulsively readable, fascinating, and provocativeguide to classical music, Norman Lebrecht, one of the world's mostwidely read cultural commentators tells the story of the rise ofthe classical recording industry from Caruso's first notes to theheyday of Bernstein, Glenn Gould, Callas, and von Karajan. Lebrechtcompellingly demonstrates that classical recording has reached itsend point-but this is not simply an expos? of decline and fall. Itis, for the first time, the full story of a minor art form,analyzing the cultural revolution wrought by Schnabel, Toscanini,Callas, Rattle, the Three Tenors, and Charlotte Church. It is thestory of how stars were made and broken by the record business; howa war criminal conspired with a concentration-camp victim to createa record empire; and how advancing technology, boardroom wars,public credulity and unscrupulous exploitation shaped the musicalbackdrop to our modern lives. The book ends with a suitable shrineto classical recording: the author's critical selectio

A Tribe Called Quest - Beastie Boys - De La Soul - Eric B. andRakim - The Fugees - KRS-One - Pete Rock and CL Smooth - PublicEnemy - The Roots - Run-DMC - Wu-Tang Clan - and twenty-five morehip-hop immortals It's a sad fact: hip-hop album liners have alwaysbeen reduced to a list of producer and sample credits, a publicityphoto or two, and some hastily composed shout-outs. That's a damnshame, because few outside the game know about the true creativeforces behind influential masterpieces like PE's It Takes a Nationof Millions. . ., De La's 3 Feet High and Rising, and Wu-Tang'sEnter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). A longtime scribe for the hip-hopnation, Brian Coleman fills this void, and delivers a thrilling,knockout oral history of the albums that define this dynamic andiconoclastic art form. The format: One chapter, one artist, onealbum, blow-by-blow and track-by-track, delivered straight from theoriginal sources. Performers, producers, DJs, and b-boys-includingBig Daddy Kane, Muggs and B-Real, Biz Markie, RZA, I

Like Moses delivering forth the Ten Commandments, Henry Owingsis bringing music fans The Rock Bible an insider's guide to livingthe rock 'n' roll dream. This hilarious rulebook is full of dos anddon'ts for musicians, wannabe musicians, and rock fans of all ages.Here's what The Rock Bible has to say about Singers: 'When you feellike stage-diving, make sure the people in the front row like yourmusic enough to catch you.'Backstage antics: 'Couches at rock clubshave never been cleaned. Think of the crazy things that have beendone on these couches, and then proceed at great personalrisk.'Lifestyle: 'If you want to die while in a famous rock band,there are four options. 1. Suicide. 2. Car or plane crash. 3. Drugoverdose. 4. Murdered by a crazy relative. Just pick one and stickwith it.' Complete with faux-biblical illustrations and parablesand essays from comedian Patton Oswalt, drummer Brian Teasley, andprofessional smartass Andrew Earles, The Rock Bible is a rude andraunchy look at the best and worst of rock 'n'

Everyone, it seems, is a fan of Audrey's. She was Gigi, a princess, Holly Golightly, a nun, Maid Marian, even an angel. And we believed her in every role. But Audrey Hepburn was also one of the most admired and emulated women of the twentieth century, who encouraged women to discover and highlight their own strength. By example, she not only changed the way women dress--she forever altered the way they viewed themselves. But Audrey Hepburn's beauty was more than skin deep. "You know the Audrey you saw onscreen? Audrey was like that in real life, only a million times better," says designer Jeffrey Banks. For the first time, this style biography reveals the details--fashion and otherwise--that contributed so greatly to Audrey's appeal. Drawing on original interviews with Hubert de Givenchy, Gregory Peck, Nancy Reagan, Doris Brynner, and Audrey Wilder, as well as reminiscences of professional friends like Steven Spielberg, Ralph Lauren, noted Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby, Steven Meisel, and Kev

"A cat book with class, this sumptuously produced, highlyliterate collection of felinity as represented in art, literature,and photography is sure to elicit purrs, " raved Publishers Weeklywhen this BOMC Selection was published in 1982. Long out of print,this cat-lovers dream book is now reissued in paperback. 70full-color reproductions. --Ce texte fait référence à uneédition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

These free-wheeling, often exhilarating dialogues—which grewout of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks—are an exchange betweentwo of the most prominent figures in contemporary culture: DanielBarenboim, internationally renowned conductor and pianist, andEdward W. Said, eminent literary critic and impassioned commentatoron the Middle East. Barenboim is an Argentinian-Israeli and Said aPalestinian-American; they are also close friends. As they range across music, literature, and society, they openup many fields of inquiry: the importance of a sense of place;music as a defiance of silence; the legacies of artists from Mozartand Beethoven to Dickens and Adorno; Wagner’s anti-Semitism; andthe need for “artistic solutions” to the predicament of the MiddleEast—something they both witnessed when they brought young Arab andIsraeli musicians together. Erudite, intimate, thoughtful andspontaneous, Parallels and Paradoxes is a virtuosiccollaboration.

"Girl before a Mirror" (1932), one of severalstandouts in MoMA's vast collection of Pablo Picasso's work, takesthe traditional artistic theme of a woman before her mirror andreinvents it in radically modern terms. The girl's profile andblonde hair identify her as Marie-Thérèse Walter, the artist'slover, muse and a profoundly transformative presence in both hislife and art, but the painting is far from a conventional portrait.Its dazzling jewel-like colors, boldly contoured shapes and surfacepatterning transform the girl and her shadowy reflection into adeeply mysterious image that is both captivating and strange. Inher essay, MoMA's Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Curator of Paintingand Sculpture, Anne Umland, explores this work in depth anddescribes the circumstances of its creation: the artist's privatelife, his practice as a sculptor, his rivalry with other artistsboth living and dead and his concern, at the age of 51, about hiscontemporary relevance and artistic legacy.

本书首次向中国的读者展示中国观众对“土地‘的各种感受和反应，其中包括有留言、图片、文章等形式。 “从某种意义来说，《土地》是一项全球性项目，她是由地球上某一特定地区年龄各异的当地人民制造出来的。她由土制成、以火生成，其情感来自触摸，其思想来自观赏。”安东尼·葛姆雷的“土地”被认为是现代雕塑的经典作品。安东尼·葛姆雷是一位国际瞩目的艺术大师，自1989年，葛姆雷一直从事着一项与世界各国不同社区接触的长期项目———《土地》。为制造不同版本的《土地》雕塑，他游历了从巴西雨林到北欧等不同国家。 2003年1月，他与300多位不同年龄层次，来自广州东北部花都地区的市民一起，用了5天的时间，制造了近20万个小泥人，组成了大型雕塑巡展“土地”．

Tote bags are becoming more and more popular because they are reusable and eco-friendly. This affordable and stylish alternative to the ubiquitous plastic bag is now also a fashion statement. The use of tote bags has spread from the eco-savvy shopper to the style-conscious consumer. With this shift, totes have moved from being a purely utilitarian item to a medium for self-expression. The printed design on the tote bag sends a message about the owner's personality. The graphics, imagery and messages displayed on tote bags are becoming increasingly sophisticated, subtle and imaginative. This book showcases some of the most striking, inventive and subversive of current examples of the tote. The featured totes come from over 120 illustrators, graphic designers and design studios around the world, from the Netherlands to Nigeria. Designs include floral prints, typography, illustrations and characters.