Like present-day New York, early-nineteenth-century London was an extraordinarily vibrant and creative metropolis to which visitors -- from scholars to social climbers -- went in search of wealth and fame. Called "an elegant and erudite introduction to nineteenth-century studies" (The Times), The Victorian Visitors lucidly captures the encounters between London and some of its most famous visitors who left an indelible mark on its culture. Among others, Christiansen reveals the great French artist Gericault painting the climax of a public execution and the finish of the Epsom Derby, Richard Wagner guffawing at anti-Semitic jokes in the restaurant of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Ralph Waldo Emerson driving Thomas Carlyle to distraction with his "moonshine" philosophy. A fascinating illustrated look at the cultural and social mores of nineteenth-century London, Christiansen's "delightful and insightful cultural history" (Booklist) challenges our stereotypes of Victorian England with vividly readable and often hilarious accounts of how British culture welcomed these remarkable foreigners. "This eloquent ... book does much to rescue Victorian Britain from its traditional image as a place of stolid public rectitude." -- Ben MacIntyre, The New York Times Book Review "A nimbly written, satisfyingly detailed survey, suggesting new directions in considering the Victorian era." -- Kirkus Reviews "Offers a magic lantern of shifting perspectives of the glittering city ... [A] marvelous book." -- Cristina Monet, Los Angeles Times

This new edition of leading opera critic Rupert Christiansen's perennially popular Pocket Guide has between extensively revised, and incorporates many more operas from all periods, including recent works by Philip Glass, Mark Anthony Turnage, Thomas Adès and George Benjamin. Whether you are a first-timer at La Boheme or a seasoned Wagnerian, every opera-goer can benefit from a little background information, and this book aims to provide just that. Accessible and easy-to-use, it contains entries for over a hundred works, both familiar and unfamiliar.

A sparkling account of the nineteenth-century rebuilding of Paris as the most beautiful city in the world, as part of the stunning Landmark Library series. 'This really is an impressive book' Sebastian Faulks. 'Brisk, vivid and unexpectedly stirring ... No one writes as evocatively and entertainingly about Paris as Christiansen does' Mail on Sunday. 'Every page is a pleasure, every building, every gas lamp brought shimmering to life ... Don't board the Eurostar without a copy' The Times. 'A wonderful book, amazingly vivid ... But also a truly original work of scholarship' Theodore Zeldin. In 1853 the French emperor Louis Napoleon inaugurated a vast and ambitious programme of public works, directed by Georges-Eugene Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine. Haussmann's renovation of Paris would transform the old medieval city of squalid slums and disease-ridden alleyways into a 'City of Light' - characterised by wide boulevards, apartment blocks, parks, squares and public monuments, new railway stations and department stores and a new system of public sanitation. City of Light charts a fifteen-year project of urban renewal which - despite the interruptions of war, revolution, corruption and bankruptcy - would set a template for nineteenth and early twentieth-century urban planning and create the enduring and globally familiar layout of modern Paris.

This collection has the words and music of all your favourite hymns and carols, alongside brief introductions for the traditional tunes.

Serge Diaghilev was the Russian impresario who is often said to have invented the modern art form of ballet. Commissioning such legendary names as Nijinsky, Fokine, Stravinsky, and Picasso, this intriguingly complex genius produced a series of radically original art works that had a revolutionary impact throughout the western world.Off stage and in its wake came scandal and sensation, as the great artists and mercurial performers involved variously collaborated, clashed, competed while falling in and out of love with each other on a wild carousel of sexual intrigue and temperamental mayhem. The Ballets Russes not only left a matchless artistic legacy - they changed style and glamour, they changed taste, and they changed social behaviour. The Ballets Russes came to an official end after many vicissitudes with Diaghilev's abrupt death in 1929. But the achievements of its heroic prime had established a paradigm that would continue to define the terms and set the standards for the next. Published to mark the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Diaghilev's birth, Rupert Christiansen - leading critic and self-confessed 'incurable balletomane' - presents this freshly researched and challenging reassessment of a unique phenomenon, exploring passionate conflicts and outsize personalities in a story embracing triumph and disaster.