In this guide to Verdi's popular opera, Marcello Conati of the Institute for Verdi Studies points out that, although audiences have always adored it, critics are only now coming to see that it represents a step forward, not back, from the revolutionary drama of Rigoletto, completed a year before. Professor D.R.B. Kimbell, an expert on Verdi's music, clarifies the story and takes us through the score, while Professor Donald Shaw examines the unusual symbolism of the Spanish Romantic movement. Il Trovatore can be approached just as a theatrical experience, but these essays give brief and valuable insights into the type of drama it is, and the way it works. Contents: 'Higher than the highest', Marcello Conati; 'Il trovatore': Music and Drama, D.R.B. Kimbell; Antonio Garcia Gutierrez's 'El trovador', Donald Shaw; Il trovatore: Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano; Il trovatore: English translation by Tom Hammond

Fidelio is Beethoven's only opera, and the composition he is said to have loved the most. Elizabeth Forbes introduces the background and composition of the opera, written and revised over the years when Europe was caught up in the Napoleonic campaigns. Basil Deane's musical commentary is the fruit of a life's study and devotion to the work. The last contribution is an extract from Ernest Newman's translation of Romain Rolland's classic study of Beethoven the Creator. Contents: Introduction, Elizabeth Forbes; Fidelio: an operatic marriage, Basil Deane; Leonore: an extract from Romain Rolland's 'Beethoven the Creator', translated by Ernest Newman; Fidelio: Libretto after Bouilly by Sonnleithner, Breuning and Treitschke; Fidelio: Lyrics by Tom Hammond, Dialogue by Rodney Blumer

Richard Strauss turned his genius to opera at the turn of the twentieth century, and this guide contains the texts and introductions to his first two masterpieces in what was, for him, a new genre. Despite obvious similarities - both operas consisting of one act, centred upon one female title role - the works are quite different in subject and treatment. Salome, based on Oscar Wilde's notorious play, has a kaleidoscopic range of orchestral colour and a lurid climax. Elektra, derived from the myths of the ancient Greeks and the first collaboration between Strauss and Hofmannsthal, is a study in neurosis, ripe for Jungian comparative analysis. Contents: Richard Strauss and the Unveiling of 'Salome', Paul Banks; Salome: Libretto by Hedwig Lachmann; Salome: English translation by Tom Hammond; Hofmannsthal's 'Elektra': from Drama to Libretto, Kenneth Segar; Elektra and the 'Elektra Complex', Christopher Wintle; Elektra: Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Elektra: English translation by Anthony Hose; Strauss's Orchestra in 'Salome' and 'Elektra', Jonathan Burton