Reviews for The New Grove Dictionary of Opera

The average rating for The New Grove Dictionary of Opera based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-05-10 00:00:00 Ramona Sledge The entries of non-classical performers are treated in a clinical manner and limited to their careers only. There is no mention of the issues in their personal lives that could have affected their professional work. For instance, Chuck Berry had problems with female minors that made him run afoul with the law in 1959. He was jailed for two years. Some of the dates of birth are questionable. The entry on Chuck Berry listed his date of birth as 15 January 1926. Some other reliable sources give his date of birth as 18 October 1926. The choice of entries seemed to be quite arbitrary. For Latin American musicians, there are brief entries on Xavier Cugat and Harry Belafonte. But there is no entry on Herb Alpert. For film music, there are entries on Henry Mancini and Nino Rota. But John Barry, Ennio Morricone and Alan Menken have not made the list. Then there are also some editorial errors. The entry on Sergey Koussevitzky mentioned his dates of birth and death as 26 July 1974 to 4 June 1951. Apparently, this composer died before he was even born! A useful work of reference only for those who seek details of Western classical composers and performers. A disappointing work otherwise for those who want details of non-classical musicians.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-10-10 00:00:00 Russell Brady Being a classroom teacher and having also taught music in the elementary school, this is a great book to have. With Common Core Standards, and teaching across the curriculum, there are many opportinities in the regular classroom to tie in Arts and Humanities. This is a harder books, and would be for the older students if they are using it by themselves, but it is full of information that can be incorporated into everyday lessons in the classroom.