In the winter of 1964, three weeks after defecting from Poland and the night after playing a flashy holiday performance with the Rockettes at Radio City, Leshek Zavistovski was arrested and faced deportation to a gulag. His troubles started, however, long before he was a fugitive cellist behind bars. As a four-year-old child he was abandoned in a remote Polish village, kidnapped, and swept into the advancing Red Army. Thus his perils began. "Children and Fish Don't Talk" is more than Leshek's dramatic story. He recounts in thrilling detail his father's defiance against the Nazis in the Warsaw Uprising, the ghastly deeds of Cossacks and the Soviet KGB, the hilarious antics of a foreigner at the height of McCarthyism, the vibrant world of the Metropolitan Opera in the 1960s, his elderly mother's foxy attempt to crush the Iron Curtain with homemade posters and glue, and numerous encounters with Polish sausage. It is a breathtaking tale of survival, taking readers from the poverty of post-war Poland to the lavish dinner tables of America's rich and famous, an adventure as harrowing as it is funny. And that's because it's true. Cellist and sculptor Leshek Zavistovski was born in Warsaw, Poland on the eve of World War II and became the youngest member of the Warsaw National Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Monique Zavistovski is a filmmaker raised on the edge of the Sleepy Hollow woods. Her work has won awards worldwide, including at Sundance and the Emmys. Fulbright scholar and violinist Toni Rapport Zavistovski recorded for Warsaw Radio with W adys aw Szpilman, the subject of Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning film "The Pianist," and was Assistant Principal Violin of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Index, Glossary, Bibliography.

An influential twentieth-century Spanish composer, Manuel de Falla continues to generate interest as well as controversy. This biography and guide to the available literature on Falla presents the complexities of Falla while underscoring the importance of careful investigation into the often conflicting evidence surrounding his life and his musical compositions. The author has compiled a substantial amount of biographic material, much of it from primary sources housed in the Archivo Manuel de Falla at Granada. The comprehensive bibliographical material provides valuable new musicological discoveries and previously unknown compositions. Musicologists, Falla researchers, and those with an interest in Spanish contemporary music will appreciate the wealth of information researched and presented in this one volume. Included are bibliographic material from around the globe, doctoral dissertations, expositions, and press clippings. The biography offers excerpts from Falla's contemporaries. The discography includes important performances by Falla and others, as well as the most recent recordings. Falla is presented in his varied, complex guises.

Merle Haggard was one of the most important country music musicians who ever lived. His astonishing musical career stretched across the second half of the 20th Century and into the first two decades of the next, during which he released an extraordinary 63 albums, 38 that made it on to Billboard's Country Top Ten, 13 that went to #1, and 37 #1 hit singles. With his ample songbook, unique singing voice and brilliant phrasing that illuminated his uncompromising commitment to individual freedom, cut with the monkey of personal despair on his back and a chip the size of Monument Valley on his shoulder, Merle's music and his extraordinary charisma helped change the look, the sound, and the fury of American music. The Hag tells, without compromise, the extraordinary life of Merle Haggard, augmented by deep secondary research, sharp detail and ample anecdotal material that biographer Marc Eliot is known for, and enriched and deepened by over 100 new and far-ranging interviews. It explores the uniquely American life of an angry rebellious boy from the wrong side of the tracks bound for a life of crime and a permanent home in a penitentiary, who found redemption through the music of "the common man." Merle Haggard's story is a great American saga of a man who lifted himself out of poverty, oppression, loss and wanderlust, to catapult himself into the pantheon of American artists admired around the world. Eliot has interviewed more than 100 people who knew Haggard, worked with him, were influenced by him, loved him or hated him. The book celebrates the accomplishments and explore the singer's infamous dark side: the self-created turmoil that expressed itself through drugs, women, booze, and betrayal. The Hag offers a richly anecdotal narrative that will elevate the life and work of Merle Haggard to where both properly belong, in the pantheon of American music and letters. The Hag is the definitive account of this unique American original, and will speak to readers of country music and rock biographies alike.

James Vincent is a "world class" musician. That he is not a household name is entirely by his choice, yet almost all who have seen him perform or heard his recordings have become his fans. He has written a unique, brutally honest account of his life... his childhood and discovery of the guitar; his going on the road at seventeen to play in seedy dives and military service clubs; later, in famous upscale clubs across the country; then making records and playing huge concert venues. James gives us an inside look at the recording industry... the studios, the performers, producers and promoters. He gives us behind the scenes insights into many famous personalities... names like Santana, Garcia, Harrison and Cetera, and acknowledges some unsung heroes in the music world. His cast of characters includes the very rich and the down and out, the saint and the prostitute, the famous, the infamous and the very bizarre. This is a story about learning the hard way; about dysfunctional families, choices and consequences, lust, infidelity, despair, triumph, tragedy, friendship and betrayal. Most of all, it is a life's journey to discover the meaning of unconditional love and spiritual fulfillment. It is indeed, an odyssey. -R.J.M.

Miss Dior is a wartime story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal and 'a gripping story' (Antonia Fraser). 'Exceptional . . . Miss Dior is so much more than a biography. It's about how necessity can drive people to either terrible deeds or acts of great courage, and how beauty can grow from the worst kinds of horror.' DAILY TELEGRAPH Miss Dior explores the relationship between the visionary designer Christian Dior and his beloved younger sister Catherine, who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. Justine Picardie's journey takes her to wartime Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance and the battle against the Nazis, until she was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbruck. Tracing the wartime paths of the Dior siblings leads Picardie deep into other hidden histories, and different forms of resistance and sisterhood. She discovers what it means to believe in beauty and hope, despite our knowledge of darkness and despair, and reveals the timeless solace of the natural world in the aftermath of devastation and destruction. *A beautiful, full colour package featuring over 200 archival images.* 'Extraordinary . . . Picardie uses her investigative reporting skills . . . the result is Netflix-worthy and the pace page-turning . . . Catherine's story shines - the quiet Dior who preferred flowers to fashion, the unsung heroine who survived the abuse of the Third Reich to help liberate France.' SUNDAY TIMES

Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1805-1847), like her younger brother Felix, demonstrated prodigious musical talent as a child. In their youth, Fanny and Felix were inseparable friends; they encouraged each other, collaborated in musical endeavors, and received the same education and training from distinguished tutors. But as an adolescent, Fanny was told by her father that her role as a woman was to concern herself with her home and that music could be only secondary, even though she had become a remarkable pianist and composer. She married Wilhelm Hensel, a respected portrait painter who encouraged her musical talents. Fulfilling her domestic role as wife and as mother of their son, Sebastian, she continued to compose - principally lieder - and to organize concerts in her home that became an integral part of the Berlin musical scene. Her talents were warmly received during a journey to Italy, particularly by Gounod, who heard her play from memory the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. At forty years of age Fanny finally went against the orders of her father and of Felix and published her compositions. She had just begun to receive critical praise when she died suddenly at the age of forty-two. Her death was a devastating blow to Felix, who survived her by barely six months. This book, originally published in French in 1992, is the first and only authoritative biography of Fanny Mendelssohn and contains a complete list of her published compositions. Set against the backdrop of a privileged life in Berlin in the early nineteenth century, Francoise Tillard's vivid portrait describes an exceptional artist - she left behind four hundred works - who could have held her own among thegreatest if she had not been prohibited from venturing into the professional world.

For many people the greatest artist, and the quintessential Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a painter, architect, theatre designer, engineer, sculptor, anatomist, geometer, naturalist, poet and musician. His Last Supper in Milan has been called the greatest painting in Western art. Illegitimate, left-handed and homosexual, Leonardo never made a straightforward career. But from his earliest apprenticeship with the Florentine painter and sculptor Andrea Verrochio, his astonishing gifts were recognised. His life led him from Florence to militaristic Milan and back, to Rome and eventually to France, where he died in the arms of the King, Francis I. As one of the greatest exponents of painting of his time, Leonardo was celebrated by his fellow Florentine Vasari (who was nevertheless responsible for covering over the great fresco of the Battle of Anghiari with his own painting). Vasari's carefully researched life of Leonardo remains one of the main sources of our knowledge, and is printed here together with the three other early biographies, and the major account by his French editor Du Fresne. Personal reminiscences by the novelist Bandello, and humanist Saba di Castiglione, round out the picture, and for the first time the extremely revealing imagined dialogue between Leonardo and the Greek sculptor Phidias, by the painter and theorist Lomazzo, is published in English. An introduction by the scholar Charles Robertson places these writings and the career of Leonardo in context. Approximately 50 pages of colour illustrations, including the major paintings and many of the astonishing drawings, give a rich overview of Leonardo's work and mind.

Matt Wolf's book chronicles ten amazing years for the Donmar and for Mendes, combining accounts of numerous productions and extensive interviews with Mendes himself and more than sixty Donmar alumni: Sondheim, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Cumming, Helen Mirren, Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, to name but a few. This celebration of the Donmar's tenth anniversary is full of candid conversation, analyses of its successes as well as its failures, and trenchant behind-the-scenes reporting. It is also the Donmar's farewell to Sam Mendes, who is leaving the theatre to pursue other opportunities on the stage and screen. As director of American Beauty, for which he won an Academy Award, and Road to Perdition, his future is as bright as his past.

This volume provides a detailed record of the life and career of Noel Coward. The book begins with a short biography and a chronology that highlights the most important events in Coward's career. Detailed entries for Coward's many performances follow, with entries grouped in chapters on drama, film, radio, and television, as well as a discography. Entries include a list of cast members, a synopsis of the plot of the production, excerpts from reviews, and critical comments. The book also lists Coward's awards and honors, and it concludes with a detailed, annotated bibliography.

Ekkehard Schall's life was devoted to the theatre. In this autobiographical memoir, he offers a lifetime of experience, expertise and memories of working with some of the great German writers, actors and directors of the twentieth century.

A member of the Berliner Ensemble established by Bertolt Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel in 1949, Ekkehard Schall worked on numerous productions of Brecht's plays and others with the Ensemble between 1952 and 1995. In the 1970s and 80s he combined the roles of leading actor and deputy director of the Ensemble. In all he played over sixty roles and achieved greatest success in the role as Arturo Ui, a role he played over 500 times.

"The Craft of Theatre: Seminars and Discussions in Brechtian Theatre" offers the reader a first-hand account of Schall's work, of his insights and his appreciation of the Brechtian roles he assumed and of the work of Germany's most important theatre. "The Craft of Theatre "is an important addition to Brechtian studies and to the biography of Germany's most totemic theatre.

'When you see Schall at work during his two-hour performance, it's as if you were watching Brecht himself on stage. Schall's technical skills embody all of Brechtian dramatic theory and practice, just as Brecht's thoughts and opinions infuse his performances.' "NewYork City Tribune"

Although her mother, Naomi, and older sister, Wynonna, rose to fame as the country music duo the Judds, Ashley Judd took her own road to stardom, becoming one of Hollywood's most successful actresses. Discover the inside story of the actress who has starred in movies such as "Heat," "Kiss the Girls," "High Crimes" and "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." Journey wilth her as she makes the transition from actress to social activist, addressing the General assembly of the United Nations on matters of the greatest importance. Learn the horror and disgust she felt when she learned her movie career had been crippled by a Hollywood mogul who orchestrated a smear campaign against her because she would not have sex with him.