The opera-goer's indispensable guide.

For seasoned opera-goers and first-time listeners alike, the definitive collection of opera stories. This guide treats opera lovers to absorbing plot summaries. John Freeman has carefully selected the works to represent the major operas performed today in the world's great houses, and he succeeds in vividly recounting the often intricate narratives. Whether used as a pre-performance refresher or a bedside companion, The Metropolitan Opera Stories of the Great Operas is an essential addition to any opera lover's library.

• Published jointly by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and Norton.

The opera-goer's indispensable guide.

About to see Rossini's William Tell, Menotti's The Consul, Gluck's Alceste, John Adams's Nixon in China? The stories of these operas and 121 others are told, clearly and concisely, in this companion volume to the highly successful Metropolitan Opera Stories of the Great Operas. John Freeman untangles and summarizes the often complicated plots and, in addition, provides an informative biographical sketch of each composer, premiere dates for the works, lists of characters, and other useful information.

The operas span more than three and one-half centuries—from Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (1640) to Philip Glass's The Voyage (1992)—and are set in venues as diverse as the legendary palace of Time (Lully's Atys) and 1960s Harlem (Anthony Davis's X). A most valuable resource, the book is also great fun just to read.

"Opera stories make wonderful reading, even when you're not boning up for a performance. They may stretch credulity . . . or wreak havoc with historical fact, . . . or be complicated enough to require several readings to determine who's on first at any given time (try Tancredi). But the stories are rarely dull."—from the foreword by Beverly Sills

• Published jointly by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and Norton.

Storms in Space is the story of the mysterious region between Earth and the Sun, where violent storms rage unseen by human eyes. Disruption of spacecraft and satellites, television transmission failures and power blackouts are just a few of the effects of this powerful force of nature, caused by the charged particles and electromagnetic fields that dominate space. This is a highly readable synopsis of man's understanding of the space environment. The book discusses the similarities between storms on Earth and in space, and goes on to describe the causes and effects of space storms, and how they can be monitored by satellites and from observatories on Earth. The forecasting of space storms is presented, along with prospects for improved models in the future. This clear and engaging book will be valuable to space scientists, physicists, astronomers and anyone with an interest in understanding the phenomenon of space weather.

Imagine what an extra-terrestrial Weather Channel would be like, with a professional space weatherman as your forecaster, and you get rather close to the astounding aspects of nature described in John Freeman's Storms in Space. Known only to a handful of space scientists, yet capable of disrupting technical systems as extensive as communication satellites and electric power grids Storms in Space is the first book to unveil the unseen elements of outer space. Opening with a series of vignettes (describing how the Northern and Southern lights [the aurora] are a visible manifestation of space storms, or how satellites serve as weather stations in space), Freeman provides visual analogies to help illustrate the effects of a storm in space on people. These vignettes explore the chain of events that lead to the storm and to connect the facets of the storm with the scenes in the vignettes. Freeman details the state of the art in forecasting space storms, the models that are used, and the prospects for their future improvement. He also describes the hazards of space storms for human technological systems including human space flight. Storms in Space provides both a new understanding and appreciation of how seemingly insignificant disturbances out there can have major effects right here. John W. Freeman is Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University. Over the past 35 years he has directed a number of satellite instrumentation projects, including the Apollo 12, 14, and 15 projects for which he was awarded the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (1973). He has also served as Editor-in-Chief of Space Power. Freeman is currently working to develop a model that will forecast the intensity of the Van Allen Radiation Belts and helping to build a National Space Weather Service.