Description

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Have you heard of the first American musical, The Black Crook, which opened in 1866 and had fifteen revivals? Do you know Oscar Straus's hilarious parody of Wagner's Ring cycle, Die lustigen Nibelungen (The Merry Nibelungs)? Do you know who the Ricci brothers, the Piccinni family, Edmond Audran, David Braham, or Fran ois-Joseph Gossec were? Look them up in this remarkable, thoroughly researched, lively book. Packed with nearly 1 800 entries, this is a must-have research tool and handy reference for the theater and music lover, student, teacher, professional singer, director, and producer

Meant as a supplement and companion to Blumenfeld's Dictionary of Acting and Show Business (Limelight, 2009), this unique dictionary is chock-full of information about all the various genres of musical theater; thumbnail plot summaries of works well-known and obscure; thumbnail biographies of composers and writers; and dance, theatrical, singing, and music terminology. Historical terms and foreign terms (with pronunciations) are included along with information on available recordings of many obscure pieces. Convenient lists of the works of Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Gilbert and Sullivan, Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and many others are provided.

About the Author

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Robert Blumenfeld lives and works as an actor, dialect coach, and writer in New York City. He is the author of Using the Stanislavsky System: A Practical Guide to Character Creation and Period Styles (2008); Blumenfeld's Dictionary of Acting and Show Business (2009); and the collaborator with Alice Spivak on her book, How to Rehearse When There Is No Rehearsal: Acting and the Media (2007) - all published by Limelight.