Search results for ""Hal Leonard Corporation""

Today Mozart's exquisite ÊLe Nozze di FigaroÊ delights and moves audiences everywhere long after its 1786 birth into tumultuous times. The original Beaumarchais play raised a firestorm in France then on the brink of revolution with its dangerous commentary on class relations. However Lorenzo Da Ponte carefully omitted anything political from his opera libretto; what remained when joined with Mozart's sublime and penetrating music was a witty yet profound tale of infatuation heartache scheming and tenderness where complex emotions are laid bare and everyone regardless of class is equally vulnerable to the powers of love.ÞFigaro continues the story of ÊThe Barber of SevilleÊ several years later in a single day of madness. Count Almaviva's love Rosina is now his long-suffering countess and the barber Figaro now the count's valet is about to marry Susanna the countess's maid. But the couple-to-be must first deal with two obstacles: a demand that Figaro pay his debt to an older woman or marry her instead and the count's determination to bed Susanna on her wedding night.ÞSuspicions fly plots are hatched narrow escapes abound and connivers receive their due. Love and forgiveness finally bring order to the craziness and a day filled with torment and worry ends in joy.

Read more less

To speak of Gerard Schwarz ä musician conductor festival organizer gig hopper educator television personality patron and proselytizer of the arts ä is to tell an exemplary American story.ÞYou could convey it exclusively in clich©s from his industrious ©migr© parents to his precocious childhood from his ardor and diligence as a prodigy trumpeter to his meteoric rise as a conductor from his unforeseen cross-country migration to the gradual construction of a world-class orchestra in a city formerly regarded as a cultural backwater from the halls of New York City's High School of Performing Arts to the digital instructor's chair of the All-Star Orchestra's Khan Academy course series.ÞYou could simply recite the numbers: over 300 new works premiered over 350 recordings in his discography 14 GRAMMY nominations five Emmy awards six ASCAP Awards and hundreds of other honors and laurels.ÞYou could dazzle and festoon and bewitch with talk of truth and beauty and the pursuit of ever-higher forms of artistic expression.ÞOr you could tell it Jerry's way.ÞÊBehind the BatonÊ is a quintessentially Schwarzian memoir: intrepid forthright risible subtly self-assured and entirely unpretentious. It offers an intimate inside look at a man whose immense talent is rivaled only by his humility and work ethic ä a man who for nearly fifty years has strived to leave every orchestra and musician he touched better than when he found them. Whether you're a classical music aficionado an orchestra initiate just cutting your teeth or an everyday reader interested in the remarkable story behind an extraordinary man ÊBehind the BatonÊ belongs on your nightstand.

Read more less

Giuseppe Verdi's operas have a special place in the hearts of audiences and in music history. They are grand in scale and yet intensely human in their ability to convey the joys and sorrows of ordinary people. Celebrated as a national treasure and venerated for his civic historical and musical influence Verdi enjoyed an enviable and almost uninterrupted success with the public throughout his long lifetime and a corresponding posthumous glory that never seems to wane. Celebrations have recently been held around the world to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth and to celebrate and promote his rich legacy.ÞIn ÊVerdi's OperasÊ each of Verdi's 26 operas from ÊObertoÊ to ÊFalstaffÊ is studied in detail The plots are described act by act and the works are analyzed and placed in the context of history and of the composer's creative career. The book also examines the literary sources that inspired the maestro's dramaturgy and presents profiles of the librettists who worked with him at the time. Lavishly illustrated with striking artwork photos and scenes from Verdi productions this book will delight opera buffs and casual readers alike.

Read more less

8-page photo insert

Read more less

When 20th Century Fox planned its blockbuster portrayal of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor it looked to Akira Kurosawa ä a man whose mastery of the cinema led to his nickname the Emperor ä to direct the Japanese sequences. Yet a matter of three weeks after he began shooting the film in December 1968 Kurosawa was summarily dismissed and expelled from the studio. The tabloids trumpeted scandal: Kurosawa had himself gone mad; his associates had betrayed him; Hollywood was engaged in a conspiracy.ÞNow for the first time the truth behind the downfall and humiliation of one of cinema's greatest perfectionists is revealed in All the Emperor's Men. Journalist Hiroshi Tasogawa probes the most sensitive questions about Kurosawa's thwarted ambition and the demons that drove him. His is a tale of a great clash of personalities of differences in the ways of making movies and ultimately of a clash between Japanese and American cultures.

Read more less

A cycle of eleven episodes told in Story Theater form a narrator speaking and life-sized puppets performing simultaneously ÊThe Greek MythsÊ tells the story of Greek mythology from the first moments of creation through its version of the story of the flood the reign of Zeus and the trials tribulations and joys during Zeus's long and continuing reign. It brings to life some of the most memorable episodes and characters in that saga: the Titans the Cyclops Zeus himself Echo and Narcissus Cupid and Psyche Theseus Orpheus and Euridice and many many more. This version of the stories by playwright Leon Katz is based on the Roman poet Ovid's epic poem ÊMetamorphosesÊ the most popular and witty retelling of the tales in Western literature.ÞÊThe Greek MythsÊ has an impressive track record. It ran for ten years in the Vagabond Puppet Company's production and during that time toured throughout the US. Its appeal has been strong with both young audiences and adults alike and was seen by thousands of theatregoers.ÞLois Bohovesky artistic director of the Vagabond Puppet Company explains For life-sized puppets performing Greek myths for children the script had to be exciting humorous and certainly accurate the language crystal clear and the poetry flowing naturally as speech ... We all know people like these gods ä Zeus for instance the consummate politician. The play is full of humor and the characters so well written that the actor's job is an easy one.

Read more less