THE PENGUIN OPERA GUIDE is a revised and updated paperback edition of the highly acclaimed Viking Opera Guide (a comprehensive volume containing over 1,500 operas and the chief rival to Kobbe), and contains entries on 450 operas detailing the original cast, background and sources of the work, a synopsis of the plot and succinct analysis of the music. There are also a further 150 composer entries. All the major operatic composers have substantial entries, although this guide is not restrictedto the mainstream: Sullivan, Offenbach, Gershwin & Sondheim sit alongside Mozart, Verdi and Wagner.
AMANDA HOLDEN is a musician, translator and editor.
NICHOLAS KENYON is Controller, BBC Radio 3, having formerly been a music critic.
STEPHEN WALSH, formerly a music critic, is now a Senior Lecturer in Music at Cardiff University.
RODNEY MILNES is the editor of Opera magazine and chief opera critic for The Times.