Awarded the legion d'Honneur by the French government in 2006 for his services to French culture, acclaimed writer and broadcaster Roger Nichols invites the reader to accompany him on his journey through the century-and-a-half turbulent and fertile period in the history of French music from Berlioz to Boulez. In compiling his collection of articles, interviews, radio plays and talks, Nichols begins with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and ends with his obituary of Pierre Boulez. Along the way, he includes in-depth studies of Debussy and Ravel, connecting the two by a comparison of their operatic masterpieces, Pelleas et Melisande and l'Enfant et les sortileges. Twenty other significant composers from this fascinating period come in for Nichols' hallmark combination of erudition and wit.

Full Length, Tragedy

Characters: 7 male, 4 female

Various sets

This incisive translation of the classic drama is by the noted British playwright, translator and director.

"Includes the plays The Park, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Time and the Room These three plays, first published in German in the 1980s, show Strauss developing an enigmatic, unsettling and uniquely theatrical style. Set in Hamburg, The Park is Strauss's take on A Midsummer Night's Dream. Seven Doors brings together a jilted husband, a wedding without guests and two monks with an intimate knowledge of hell. In Time and The Room, the room contrives to be the play's main character."

Verdi came to Shakespeare through Italian translation and had never seen Macbeth on stage when he wrote his first version of the opera in 1847. Giorgio Melchiori draws a parallel between the conditions in which the playwright and the composer were working and compares their achievements. The supernatural was a vital element in both conceptions: the opera is "in the fantastic style", with bizarre music for the witches' dances and choruses. Theatre historian Michael Booth vividly introduces the staging of Shakespeare in the nineteenth century. Harold Powers discusses how the dramatic situations lent themselves to the forms and purposes of Italian opera. Contents: 'Macbeth': Shakespeare to Verdi, Giorgio Melchiori; Making 'Macbeth' 'Musicabile', Harold Powers; 'Macbeth' and the Nineteenth-Century Theatre, Michael R. Booth; A Note on Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', August Wilhelm Schlegel; The Preface in the Ricordi Libretto; Piave's Intended Preface for the 1847 Libretto; Macbeth: Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave (1865); Macbeth: English translation by Jeremy Sams

This selection of plays by Jean Anouilh (1910-87), one of France's best-known dramatists, includes some of his most enduring work: "The Rehearsal" ("quintessential Anouilh,"" Herald Tribune"); "Becket," which focuses on the relationship between Becket and Henry II; and "The Orchestra," "A Play Within a Concert," all translated by Jeremy Sams; together with "Eurydice," an ironic modern reworking of the myth ("a fascinating piece," "Financial Times"), translated by Peter Meyer.

"Becket": "Witty, intelligent, full of repartee and irreverence ... it can hold an audience spellbound."--"Financial Times"

"The Rehearsal": "Jeremy Sams has translated impeccably."--"Observer"