List $22.98

Written by Richard Fawkes - Audio book narrated by Robert Powell - Featuring Over 75 Musical Examples - Abridged Nonfiction - 4 CASSETTES - over 5 hours

Publisher, Naxos Audiobooks (June 1999)

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Naxos Audiobooks' Excellence Recognized at Talkies Award Ceremony! Naxos AudioBooks received top honors in the non-fiction category for its original, The History of Opera by Richard Fawkes, at the 1999 Talkies Awards reception, held at London's Landmark Hotel. Similar to the Audio Publishers Association's Audie Awards, The Talkies is the UK's spoken-word industry trade and consumer award, acknowledging excellence in the audiobook publishing field.

The Audio Publisher's Association (APA) also selected The History of Opera as a 2000 Audie Finalist in both the Original Work and Non-Fiction categories.

Narrated by Robert Powell, The History of Opera, is the colorful story of sometimes temperamental composers and even more temperamental singers working in an art form, which has produced some of man's noblest artistic creations. Over 100 musical examples by Naxos artists, as well as some of the greatest singers of the 20th century, including Enrico Caruso, Fyodor Chaliapin, an a host of international stars, illustrates the absorbing history of opera.

Since it's origins in the 16th century, opera has been an extravagant, costly affair, arousing great passions. It has also produced some of the most sublime works of art, from Monteverdi to Wagner. Following the widely acclaimed History of Classical Music, Richard Fawkes traces the history of opera up to the present day on the first three CDs; and devotes the fourth to the history of operetta.

About the narrator, Robert Powell: Robert Powell played Jesus in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth, which won him four major international. He also played Mahler in Ken Russell's film of the same name, and his other film credits include Harlequin, Tommy, and The Thirty Nine Steps. He has appeared on stage in Hamlet, and Travesties and on TV in The Detectives.