"Between the cobblestones, il lupa waited alone, whispered, "Renew your love. Restore your heart. Come into this wide world, this stream of clarity."" The mysteries of the heart continue to intrigue, surprise, and warm the soul of Sophia Puccini-a woman who once dreamed of marrying The Gypsy Kings and running away with flamenco dancers. In her second collection of love poems, Puccini shares her reflections on love written in both the United States and Italy during a three-year period. Puccini has loved many men in her lifetime, including Nietzsche, Kafka, Thoreau, Krishnamurti, Jung, Lorca, Jesus, Cervantes, God, Puccini, Chopin-and even President Bush. In her new compilation of eighty-eight poems, written while she was tending her sheep, sweeping her floors, and traveling in Europe, she proves that through it all, she is still a simple woman who enjoys daydreaming about love. Puccini peppers her poetry with lavish imagery while her words explore a passionate relationship that led her to ask questions, solve dilemmas, and eventually seek the truth. "Il Lupa" is not a collection of clichd love poems, but rather, a deep, personal glimpse into a very profound-sometimes confusing-sensual relationship.

The Black Dog Opera Library is the best, easiest and most informative and budget-friendly way to enjoy four of the greatest operas of all time.

Finally available again, and packaged with gorgeous new covers, each book in the library includes the complete opera on 2 CDs, featuring world-class performances and orchestras; the complete libretto, plus its English translation; an exciting history of the opera; a biography of the composer; a synopsis of the story, broken down by act and scene; and dozens of photographs and drawings depicting performances, singers, sets, costumes, and more.

La Boheme features Nicolai Gedda and Mirella Freni, with Thomas Schippers conducting the Orchestro e Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.

Also available:

Carmen features Grace Bumbry, Jon Vickers, Mirella Freni, and Kostas Paskalis, with Rafael Fru beck de Burgos conducting the Orchestra of the Theatre National de l'Opera. La Traviata features Beverly Sills, Nicolai Gedda, and Rolando Panerai, with Aldo Ceccato conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; The Marriage of Figaro features Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Heather Harper, Judith Blegen, Geraint Evans, Teresa Berganza, and Birgit Finnila, with Daniel Barenboim conducting the English Chamber Orchestra.

Listen. Enjoy. Learn."

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.